Les Temps Sont Bons

Elixir Aircraft, the French aircraft-maker founded in 2015 for the express purpose of designing and producing “safer, more economical, more environmentally-friendly, and more versatile aircraft,” asserted on the fourth-day of the 54th Paris Air-Show that sales of its training aircraft remain brisk.

In addition to pair of deals that will see over 110 specimens of its Part 23 airplane delivered to two U.S. flight-training concerns, Elixir announced that Luxembourg-based leasing ALD LUX, has entered into an agreement for the purchase of four of French plane-maker’s fourth-generation aircraft.

What’s more, Elixir has signed a Letter Of Intent (LOI) with New Zealand professional pilot training organization International Aviation Academy of New Zealand (IAANZ) for a number of new airplanes.

In April 2023, a delegation of IAANZ representatives visited Elixir’s La Rochelle facility for purpose of evaluating the air-framer’s offerings and the support-systems germane thereto. Following extensive assessments and a series of demo-flights, IAANZ and Elixir drafted and signed the aforementioned LOI—by dint of which ten specimens of Elixir’s one-hundred-horsepower, full glass-cockpit, fourth-generation aircraft will be delivered to the antipodal institution at a cadence of two-per-year for the next five years.

Maintaining Elixir’s aircraft—by virtue of the robustness of their designs and simplicity of their construction—is on the order of sixty-percent less intensive and costly than maintaining legacy single-engine training airplanes. This distinction is of major import to a flight-school displaced from La Rochelle by some 10,463-nautical-miles.

Elixir head of sales Mike Tonkin stated: "The part catalog for an Elixir consists of between twenty-to-thirty times less references than existing older generation aircraft; so it's an incredible opportunity for a flying school to manage its spare parts and day-to-day operations."

The EASA CS-23 certified single-engine T-tail monoplane currently offered by Elixir is available in two iterations: a Rotax 912 iS-powered trainer, and a Rotax 915 iS-equipped traveler model. Both machines feature spin-resistant designs comprising variable main-wing angles of incidence which ensure the aircrafts’ wing-roots stall prior to their wing-tips—thereby affording Elixir pilots aileron authority even in conditions of aerodynamic stall.

Elixir further appoints its aircraft with explosion-resistant fuel tanks; reinforced oleo-pneumatic tricycle landing gear; double-slotted electric flaps; high-performance Beringer wheels fitted with hydraulic differential disc-brakes and armored hoses; flight-data recorders; and Garmin’s GI260 Angle of Attack (AoA) indicator and Smart Glide—a system intended to aids pilots in loss-of-engine power emergencies by automating tasks, thereby reducing pilot workload. Specifically, Smart Glide recommends suitable landing airports within a distressed aircraft’s engine-out glide range—as estimated by GPS. Paired with avionics such as Garmin’s GTN Xi series and a compatible Garmin autopilot, Smart Glide automatically engages autopilot pitch control to maintain best glide speed while simultaneously navigating the aircraft to the selected emergency airport.

In the event of catastrophic emergency, Elixir aircraft are fitted with Ballistic Parachute Recovery Systems (BPRS) deployable up to the two models’ respective Vne speeds.

FMI: www.elixir-aircraft.com