Sonex Aircraft, LLC is an American kit aircraft manufacturer located in Oshkosh,

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

, producing kits for four all-metal homebuilt

monoplane A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft configuration with a single mainplane, in contrast to a biplane or other types of multiplanes, which have multiple planes. A monoplane has inherently the highest efficiency and lowest drag of any wing confi ...

s. The company was founded in 1998 by John Monnett, who has designed the Monnett Sonerai sport aircraft series,

Monnett Monerai The Monnett Monerai is a sailplane that was developed in the United States in the late 1970s for homebuilding. It is a conventional pod-and-boom design with a V-tail and a mid-mounted cantilever wing of constant chord. The kit assembles in app ...

sailplane,

Monnett Moni __NOTOC__ The Monnett Moni is a sport aircraft developed in the United States in the early 1980s and marketed for homebuilding. Designed by John Monnett, who coined the term "air recreation vehicle" to describe it, it is a single-seat motorglid ...

motorglider, and

Monnett Monex The Monnett Monex is a single seat, all-aluminium, Volkswagen powered, homebuilt racer. Design and development The Monex shares the same aluminium construction and basic fuselage shape as the Monnett Moni and the later Sonex Aircraft Sonex ...

racer. Monnett designs are displayed in the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center of the National Air and Space Museum near Washington D.C. In June 2018, John Monnett announced his plan to retire and sell the company. In January 2022, Sonex employee and general manager, Mark Schaible, purchased the assets of Sonex Aircraft LLC and Sonex Aerospace LLC, forming them into a new company, Sonex LLC. Schaible will be owner and president of the new company.

Aircraft

In 2013, the FAA National Kit Evaluation Team (NKET) approved fast-build "51% rule" versions of the Sonex, Waiex, and Onex. In December 2019 the John Monnett-designed

Sonerai The Sonerai is a small, VW-powered homebuilt aircraft,"The Sonerai I,"
GreatPlai ...

was acquired by Sonex Aircraft. SonexN232TM01

19-5409 Monnett Sonerai IILS (8543451673)

Engines

Company subsidiary AeroConversions manufactures the

AeroConversions AeroVee Engine The AeroConversions Aerovee Engine is a kit-built engine for homebuilt aircraft based on the Volkswagen air-cooled engine. Design and development The AeroVee engine is manufactured and marketed by AeroConversions, a part of Sonex Aircraft ...

, a custom aircraft implementation of the

Volkswagen air-cooled engine The Volkswagen air-cooled engine is an air-cooled, gasoline-fuelled, boxer engine with four horizontally opposed cast-iron cylinders, cast aluminum alloy cylinder heads and pistons, magnesium-alloy crankcase, and forged steel crankshaft and co ...

Hornet's Nest

The Hornet's Nest is the research and development arm of Sonex LLC.

E-flight

At AirVenture 2007, Sonex Aircraft announced a project to work on innovative technologies in aviation. The E-flight projects includes using an

electric motor An electric motor is an Electric machine, electrical machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a Electromagneti ...

, ethanol-based fuels, and other

power plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electrical grid. Many pow ...

alternatives. In December 2010, an all-electric Waiex was test flown from Wittman field in

Oshkosh, Wisconsin Oshkosh is a city in Winnebago County, Wisconsin, of which it is the county seat. The city had a population of 66,816 in 2020, making it the ninth-largest city in Wisconsin. It is also adjacent to the Town of Oshkosh. History Oshkosh was ...

. The aircraft was flown with a brushless DC electric motor, managed by a newly designed controller. Power is from a collection of 14.5 kW-hour lithium polymer batteries, giving the aircraft an endurance of one hour at low-speed cruise or 15 minutes of aerobatics. This was the beginning of the development of the

Sonex Electric Sport Aircraft The Sonex Electric Sport Aircraft (ESA) was a two-place (one place with additional batteries) aircraft design that was under development by Sonex Aircraft, using the Sonex e-Flight electric system for thrust. Sonex designed this aircraft as a ...

References

External links

* {{Monnett aircraft Aircraft manufacturers of the United States Monnett aircraft Aviation in Wisconsin 1998 establishments in Wisconsin American companies established in 1998 Manufacturing companies established in 1998 Oshkosh, Wisconsin