Wed, Apr 18, 2007
Sports Longer Ailerons, Other Performance Upgrades
This week, Sonex Aircraft, LLC told Aero-News of its latest
purpose-built kit aircraft: the Sonex "Sport Acro."
Much like the Sonex Sport Trainer, the Sport Acro is a hybrid of
features and option selections for the existing Sonex design,
making it suitable for enhanced aerobatic performance, and offering
an affordable entry-level aircraft for Primary and Sportsman class
aerobatic competition.
The primary feature of the Sonex Sport Acro consists of new,
increased-span ailerons. These larger ailerons are expected to
increase roll rates to a competition-worthy level.
Aside from enlarged ailerons, the Sport Acro is a standard gear
Sonex with a single center stick, which is the basic Sonex Complete
Airframe Kit configuration. The Sport Acro has a five-point
seatbelt harness configured to allow the pilot to sit in the middle
of the aircraft for positioning directly on the roll axis, with the
added benefit of making the Sport Acro an exceptionally capacious
single place aircraft.
Upholstery, instrumentation and installed optional equipment
have been kept to a minimum in order to keep the aircraft as light
as possible.
Sonex Aircraft, LLC expects the Sport Acro to achieve aerobatic
competition-class performance on just 80 hp, and the prototype
Sport Acro has an AeroConversions AeroVee 2.0 80 hp engine under
the cowl. Using an AeroVee engine and requiring a minimum of
optional equipment, a pilot can build an aircraft for entry-level
aerobatic competition for just $25,000 complete.
Sonex Aircraft sport full aerobatic category G-loading of +6 and
-3 G's at 950 lbs max aerobatic gross weight (1050 lbs for the
Xenos Motorglider). Sporting an above-average load factor margin,
Sonex tells ANN its aircraft represent some of the most
structurally-sound aircraft available in the kit aircraft market
today.
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