Inheriting Greatness

On 10 July 2023, Walter Extra announced his company’s lineup of industry-leading aerobatic machines is to be supplemented by the imminent addition of the 330SX.

The new bird is a single-seat, steel-fuselage, carbon-fiber wing/empennage evolution of EXTRA’s perennially popular, eminently proven, eight-time-world-championship-winning 330SC.

Established in 1980 by German aerobatic pilot Walter Extra as a means by which to design and develop his own airplanes, EXTRA Aircraft—EXTRA Flugzeugbau in its founder’s native tongue—has evolved into one of the world’s premier makers of aerobatic aircraft.

EXTRA’s 330SX retains the DNA of its world-championship-winning 330SC ancestor, but embellishes upon such with improvements the likes of high-performance ailerons, which deliver higher roll-rates and crisper stops about the aircraft’s longitudinal axis; and a reduced fuselage length, which centralizes mass and enhances agility about all aircraft control axes.

A widened cockpit; increased control-stick clearance; greater headroom; a standard G3X Touch 7” primary flight display; optimized leading-edge cuffs by which wing sealing gasket efficacy is improved; and a redesigned cowling offering improved engine cooling are just a few more assets with which this aircraft is equipped.

EXTRA’s high-performance aileron package facilitates superior roll authority, thereby ensuring crisper maneuverability at all airspeeds and improved predictability and consistency of gyroscopic maneuvers. Moreover, EXTRA engineers—by dint of an updated fuselage design that centralizes and concentrates mass—have succeeded in reducing the 330SX’s weight while retaining its forebear’s flight envelope speeds—including a 220-knot Vne.

In addition to the new 330SX, EXTRA’s aircraft line-up comprises the EXTRA 330SC, a single seat, low-wing, aerobatic monoplane possessed of the sort of aerobatic performance that won world championships in 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019, and 2022; the EXTRA 330LX, a two-seat, tandem arrangement, low-wing, aerobatic monoplane eminently suited to both aerobatic competition and dual instruction.

The EXTRA 330, a slick, two-seat, glass-panel machine that EXTRA rightfully touts as the Aerobatic Tourer; the EXTRA 330LP, a two-seat, tandem arrangement, low-wing aerobatic monoplane that’s slightly less aggressive than the LX; and finally, the EXTRA NG, the company’s next-generation aerobatic aircraft.

The 330-SX first flew on 06 June 2023 and remains in flight-testing. Extra is currently accepting 330SX orders for deliveries in mid-2024—subject to the vicissitudes of flight-testing and EASA certification.

FMI: www.extraaircraft.com