Wed, May 25, 2022
Employees to be Retained, Support Services to be Honored
Sonaca Aircraft announced today that it will cease production of its S200 aircraft.
Sonaca CEO Yves DeLatte describes the measure as a “necessary decision… ” engendered by the COVID-19 pandemic’s adverse impact on general aviation and, in particular, pilot training.
The S200 is a low-wing, aluminum, monoplane airplane based on the Sling II, a South African two-seater aircraft designed and produced by Sling Aircraft in Johannesburg, South Africa. The Sling gained notoriety in 2009 when the specially modified second prototype successfully circumnavigated the Earth in forty days. The feat was the first for an aircraft of its class.
Type-certified in 2018 and specifically designed for pilot training and leisure flights, the S200 features an MTOW of 750 kilograms (1653 lbs.) and a normal cruise speed of 115 knots. The aircraft’s corrosion-resistant, aluminum-alloy construction; tricycle landing gear; docile flight-characteristics; 70 liter (18.5 gallon) fuel capacity; and 360° visibility are well suited to its design purpose.
The S200 is powered by a slick, turbo-charged, four-stroke, 115-HP, four-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, Rotax 914 engine with air-cooled cylinders and water-cooled cylinder heads.
Sonaca Aircraft, a subsidiary of the Belgian Aerospace conglomerate Sonaca Group, has committed to offer employment to all employees formerly engaged in the production of the S200. The company states it will “fulfill all its obligations and facilitate the continuity of essential activities for customers, i.e. services and after sales.”
Whether or not the post COVID world will see the S200 resurrected remains to be seen. What can said with certainty, is that Sonaca built a promising airplane that vanished too quickly from an uncertain world.
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