Booth 298, EAA AirVenture 2022

SportairUSA, the Arkansas-based FAA certified Repair Station and aircraft and components distributor, has announced that the American version of Zlin’s new Savage Norden STOL aircraft has received FAA certification in the category of Special Light Sport Aircraft.

Zlin Aircraft—formerly and perhaps more widely known as Moravan Otrokovice—is a Czech aircraft manufacturer of light agricultural, aerobatic, and backcountry airplanes. The company’s Savage Norden is a largely clean-sheet high-wing, STOL, aluminum monoplane designed for backcountry use. The machine’s Norden moniker is an homage to the world’s northern (Nordic) climes, which Zlin’s literature identifies as the Savage Norden’s primary market—and to which the company has tailored the aircraft’s forward-thinking design, rugged construction, and outstanding STOL and backcountry capabilities.

Sportair president Bill Canino states: “The Norden is a high-performing, aluminum-wing airplane with electrically controlled leading-edge slats, designed and thoroughly tested for short-field and off-runway performance. It also exhibits good speed and stable cruise characteristics, which are unusual in aircraft of this design. We have reserved a limited number of production slots, with delivery scheduled for this year.”

“We appreciate the attention to safety that the FAA brings to this certification process,” said Canino, who worked with the FAA throughout the autumn and winter of 2021-22 to facilitate the Savage Norden’s certification. Canino’s company, SportairUSA, is well-known in the experimental and recreational aviation communities, which it has served since 1990.

The Savage Norden’s design amalgamates conventional short takeoff and landing (STOL) elements with innovative concepts tested and proved in previous Zlin airplanes such as the Savage Classic, Cruiser, iCub, Nomad, Bobber, Shock, and Shock Ultra. Zlin’s evolution as a designer and manufacturer of robust, STOL aircraft was guided largely by feedback from pilots operating light aircraft in environments as demanding and disparate as the Alaskan bush and the deserts of South Africa.

The American version of the Savage Norden is handsomely equipped with avionics and other features offered only as options elsewhere. SportairUSA’s goal is to provide pilots and operators aircraft well-suited to meet the rigors of both austere environs and a highly-competitive marketplace.

SportairUSA—the North American distributor and service center for Savage and other sport aircraft—will display a specimen of the newly-certified Savage Norden at EAA’s AirVenture 2022. Interested parties will find the aircraft at Booth 298.

FMI: www.sportair.aero