Ready Your Deposits, Aspiring Jet Pilots

Sonex Aircraft, LLC—the Oshkosh, Wisconsin-based manufacturer of kit-aircraft—is accepting deposits for its SubSonex JSX-2T, a two-place, home-built, personal jet. 

Aside from being a capable aircraft in its own right, the JSX-2T is intended, in part, to serve as a trainer for pilots seeking to transition into Sonex’s single-seat SubSonex JSX-2—upon which the new airplane is based. Sonex asserts it designed the JSX-2T to be “the lowest cost jet trainer ever.” 

Construction of the JSX-2T prototype is well-underway, and the aircraft will be on-display at AirVenture 2022 in Sonex exhibit booths 602 and 603. The company says it plans to begin flight-testing the JSX-2T in the autumn. Kit production will likely commence in the second quarter of 2023. Deliveries of kits to customers are slated to begin in the fall or winter of 2023.

True to its trainer (T) designation, the JSX-2T features side-by-side seating and extensive commonality with its JSX-2 counterpart. The two aircraft are similar in wing planform and loading, and share the same PBS TJ-100 turbojet engine. The high-degree of similitude between the JSX-2 and JSX-2T promises to streamline pilot transition from one aircraft to the other. 

To reserve a JSX-2T kit, interested parties will need plunk down $15,000. Sonex estimates the total cost of the completed aircraft—to include engine, avionics, and interior upholstery—will be in the neighborhood of $155,000. Customers who cancel their JSX-2T reservations will incur a $1,500 fee.

Persons seeking to fast-track the completion of their JSX-2Ts will be happy to know Sonex—in addition to the basic kit—will offer Quick-Build and Ultra-Quick-Build options for $66,000 and $74,000 respectively. 

Like all Sonex aircraft, the JSX-2 and JSX-2T are evolutions of the Sonerai, a Volkswagen-powered homebuilt airplane designed by John Monnett in the early 1970s. Monnett’s single-seat, mid-wing, tailwheel craft proved a respectable Formula-V racer, and he developed it steadily until 2019, when Monnett sold the design to Sonex. The Sonerai appellation is a portmanteau—albeit a stylized one—of Sonic and Cosmic-Ray.

FMI: www.sonexaircraft.com