Aerobatic Sonex Aircraft High Wing to Debut at EAA AirVenture 2023
Sonex Aircraft, LLC, the American manufacturer of popular, lightweight, metal, low-wing, two-seat, homebuilt aircraft the likes of the Sonex, Waiex B, and Xenos, announced in August 2021 that it would produce its first high-wing aircraft. Prosaically dubbed the Sonex Aircraft High Wing, the machine was designed to appeal to the high-wing enthusiast by offering expanded utility and ease of pilot access in a nimble, stylish package.
In addition to setting forth that the new high-wing aircraft would offer the performance and handling upon which Sonex has built its reputation and customer base, the Oshkosh marque distinguished the model’s architecture from those of competing kit-plane concerns, asserting the new, fully-cantilevered-high-wing airplane would be designed after the Sonex traditions of sleekness, efficiency, aerobatic capability, and cross-country performance.
Though eminently capable of operating from short, grass strips, the new Sonex Aircraft High Wing is not a backcountry airplane. Realizing the backcountry market was inundated with able aircraft, Sonex engineers set out, instead, to bring the company’s mission of enjoyable, everyday, local, aerobatics or fast, efficient cross-country flying to aficionados of high-wing airplanes.
In keeping with the cross-country aspect of its mission, the Sonex High Wing is capable of carrying more fuel than its stablemates. The aircraft features the standard Sonex B-Model twenty-gallon, rotationally-molded fuel-cell, but is available with an optional, inboard wing-tank modification by which the aircraft’s fuel-capacity is increased by ten-gallons. The auxiliary fuel is easily transferred to the aircraft’s main tank via gravity feed.
The new High Wing is slated to weigh 720-pounds empty, but offer a generous Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight (MGTOW) of 1,320 lbs. It should be noted, however, that aerobatic flight in the model is only approved when the aircraft is flown solo at a gross weight under 1,050-pounds. Within such parameters, the airplane’s design G-limits are advertised at +6 and -3. Similar to Sonex’s Xenos motor-glider, the High Wing will offer easily interchangeable aerobatic wing tips which contemporaneously reduce the aircraft’s wing-span, increase its roll-rate, and maximize its top-speed—thereby affording exhilarating local aerobatic flying.
The new Sonex Aircraft High Wing will be offered in both conventional and Y-tail, as well as taildragger (conventional) and tricycle undercarriage configurations. The aircraft is designed for engines of one-hundred-horsepower or greater, with a maximum firewall-forward installation weight of two-hundred-pounds. After the fashion of Sonex’s current B-Model aircraft, the High Wing is compatible with AeroVee, Jabiru, UL Power, and Rotax engines. The model is slated to debut at EAA’s AirVenture 2023 in Sonex’s hometown of Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
Parties interested in learning more about the Sonex’s inaugural high-wing offering are invited to register and attend a webinar to be presented by Sonex owner and High Wing designer Mark Schaible, who—on Tuesday, 07 February 2023 at 19:00 CST—will provide timely updates regarding the High Wing’s design and prototyping progress in anticipation of the aircraft’s debut.
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