Good Things Cannot be Rushed

Interest in Sonex’s new Highwing aircraft remains similarly keen among those by whom the machine is being developed and those intent upon purchasing such.

Sympathetic to the disappointment apt to be occasioned by the news, Sonex conceded by way of a 09 July statement that a prototype of its inchoate Highwing model will not be ready for 2023’s EAA’s AirVenture.    

Sonex’s ownership and staff remain resolutely about the business of managing supply-chain bottlenecks, while the company’s R&D and Quick Build Kit production departments are occupied with fulfilling contracts germane to the Uncrewed Aircraft Systems facet of Sonex’s business and keeping Quick Build Kit production proceeding apace.

Notwithstanding the challenges with which the company is currently faced, Sonex personnel have worked steadily to finalize key components of the Highwing’s structural architectures.

Acutely cognizant of the degree to which the Highwing departs from Sonex’s design orthodoxy, engineers are undertaking comprehensive analysis of the model’s fuselage for purpose of ensuring it will meet or exceed designers’ goals while remaining a lightweight, efficient structure. Engineers’ analyses will be confirmed by additional structural testing ahead of ASTM certification.

Sonex set forth, also, in the 09 July statement: “While we can't slow-down the Earth's rotation and make more hours in the day, and we must always put servicing existing products and customers before new product development, Sonex LLC remains fully committed to bringing the Sonex Highwing design to fruition. This new aircraft is going to be a great one, so stay tuned as our work continues.”

In August 2021, Sonex announced it would produce its first high-wing aircraft. Prosaically dubbed the Sonex Aircraft Highwing, the machine was designed to offer adherents of high-wing airplanes expanded utility and ease of ingress in a nimble, stylish package.

Sonex declared its fully-cantilevered-high-wing airplane would be designed after the Sonex aspirations of sleekness, efficiency, aerobatic capability, and cross-country performance.

Though developed to be eminently capable of operating from short, grass strips, the new Sonex Highwing is not a backcountry airplane. Rather, the machine will embody Sonex’s signature syncretism of enjoyable, every-day, local, aerobatics and fast, efficient, cross-country flying in a high-wing airframe.

In keeping with the cross-country aspect of its mission, the Sonex Highwing will be capable of carrying more fuel than its stablemates. The model will feature the standard Sonex B-Model twenty-gallon, rotationally-molded fuel-cell, but be available with an optional, inboard wing-tank modification by which the aircraft’s fuel-capacity will be increased by ten-gallons.

The new Highwing is slated to weigh 720-pounds empty, but offer a generous Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight (MGTOW) of 1,320 lbs. It should be noted, however, that aerobatic flight in the model will only be approved in such instances as the aircraft is flown solo at a gross weight under 1,050-pounds. Within the antecedent parameters, the airplane’s design G-limits are advertised as +6 and -3. Similar to Sonex’s Xenos motor-glider, the High Wing will offer easily interchangeable aerobatic wing tips, which contemporaneously reduce the aircraft’s wing-span, increase its roll-rate, and maximize its top-speed.

The new Sonex Aircraft Highwing will be offered in both conventional and Y-tail, as well as taildragger and tricycle undercarriage configurations. The aircraft’s design will be compatible with engines of one-hundred-horsepower or greater, with a maximum firewall-forward installation weight of two-hundred-pounds. After the fashion of Sonex’s current B-Model aircraft, the High Wing will be compatible with AeroVee, Jabiru, UL Power, and Rotax engines.

FMI: www.sonexaircraft.com