DIY Single Seat Aerobatic Aircraft: Reasonable Flying Fun

In the center of a glacial Wisconsin winter, the group at Sonex Aircraft has resolute it’s a great time for another first flight. Among abundance of snowfall on the ground and cold air above the wings, company president Jeremy Monnett finished the first flight in the all innovative Onex, a single seat sport aircraft with folding wings (visible in video after the jump) and designed to cost less than $25,000.

For the same cost as a little boat or a pleasant motorcycle you’ll get some exciting presentation together with a top speed of 170 miles per hour and aerobatic potentials. All this among just 80 horsepower which means the oil bill will be a portion of that for other airplane, just like the purchase cost.

The journey of the Onex is the subsequent first flight Sonex has completed this winter after a small first jump in its electric aircraft in December. The Onex first flight preceding about 20 minutes and provided Monnett time to charge the primary handling qualities which are very good.

The Onex is appearing like the single seat, fighter airplane kind of experience several pilots have dreamed of, but were deficient the hundreds, if not millions of dollars to complete. Okay, this is no P-51, but simply the Vans RV-3 comes to intellect as far as fighter-like entertaining on a budget.

Like some other designs from Sonex, the Onex utilizes the AeroVee engine. The 80 horsepower, four-cylinder cruise is founded on the VW racing core, and is air cooled. But it has been entirely redesigned and customized for aviation use counting an all new crankshaft and dual explosion. Basically it’s a new motor that seems like the VW it was built upon.

Both the aircraft and the motor can be obtained as a kit. The AeroVee 2.1 involves about 12 hours gather according to the company. Moreover the aircraft itself will be advertised only as a kit. Construct times for kit aircraft differ wildly depending on the budget, experience of the designer and the intensity of finish, but Monnett imagines builders to spend 500-1000 hours finishing the Onex.