The Onex (pronounced "One-X" ) is an American single-seat,

low-wing 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 ...

aircraft first flown on 27 January 2011 and currently being produced by

Sonex Aircraft Sonex Aircraft, LLC is an American kit aircraft manufacturer located in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, producing kits for four all-metal homebuilt monoplanes. The company was founded in 1998 by John Monnett, who has designed the Monnett Sonerai sport ai ...

as a kit for amateur construction.Tacke, Willi; Marino Boric; et al: ''World Directory of Light Aviation 2015-16'', page 126. Flying Pages Europe SARL, 2015.

Design and development

The Onex was designed to be economical, have

aerobatic Aerobatics is the practice of flying maneuvers involving aircraft attitudes that are not used in conventional passenger-carrying flights. The term is a portmanteau of "aerial" and "acrobatics". Aerobatics are performed in aeroplanes and glid ...

capabilities and folding wings, allowing storage in a standard high by wide residential garage. The aircraft has been designed to standard light aircraft

FAR-23 The Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs comprise Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety o ...

static load requirements with the wings supporting more than 10,000 pounds in sandbags during the tests. Intended for the US experimental home-built and

light-sport aircraft A light-sport aircraft (LSA), or light sport aircraft, is a fairly new category of small, lightweight aircraft that are simple to fly. LSAs tend to be heavier and more sophisticated than ultralight (aka "microlight") aircraft, but LSA restrictio ...

categories, in 2012 the company estimated the total price to purchase and build the aircraft to be around

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

25,299, making it the least expensive of their kits. The

FAA The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...

's National Kit Evaluation Team has approved construction checklists demonstrating compliance with the homebuilt requirement that the "major portion", or 51% of the aircraft, is completed by the builder, not the manufacturer. This also allows the owner to seek commercial help with construction. The first prototype was flown with

conventional landing gear Conventional landing gear, or tailwheel-type landing gear, is an aircraft undercarriage consisting of two main wheels forward of the center of gravity and a small wheel or skid to support the tail.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Term ...

with the first flight of the

tricycle gear Tricycle gear is a type of aircraft undercarriage, or ''landing gear'', arranged in a tricycle fashion. The tricycle arrangement has a single nose wheel in the front, and two or more main wheels slightly aft of the center of gravity. Tricycle g ...

version taking place on October 5, 2011. The prototype was equipped with an AeroVee

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 ...

. In a February 2, 2011

webinar Web conferencing is used as an umbrella term for various types of online conferencing and collaborative services including webinars (web seminars), webcasts, and web meetings. Sometimes it may be used also in the more narrow sense of the peer-le ...

, Monett discussed many of technical aspects of the Onex, as well as providing a description of the early flight tests. The Onex is constructed from 6061 aluminum and features a single 15-gallon molded plastic fuel tank mounted in the

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraft t ...

, situated so the pilot can see the level of the fuel remaining. Monett claims that this type of tank is the safest and placing it in the fuselage, as opposed to in the wing, will reduce the chances of a fire in case of an accident. A further advantage of this configuration is that the fuel system will be gravity-fed and therefore not require a

fuel pump A fuel pump is a component in motor vehicles that transfers liquid from the fuel tank to the carburetor or fuel injector of the internal combustion engine. Carbureted engines often use low pressure mechanical pumps that are mounted outside the f ...

, as it would if the tank were in the wings. Monett discussed the aim of simplicity and that a major goal is to reduce the parts count and thereby cost and weight. He also indicated that on the first test flight the aircraft climbed at 1200 ft per minute and was very responsive to the controls. Monett stated also that he had done some cursory testing of the flaps and found the 45° flap position to be very effective. In a progress update on January 26, 2012, Sonex stated that more than 50 kits had been shipped before the new year, and some were nearing completion.

Specifications (Onex with regular span wing)

References

External links

Manufacturer WebsiteVideo of first test flight
{{Monnett aircraft 2010s United States sport aircraft Light-sport aircraft Homebuilt aircraft Monnett aircraft Single-engined tractor aircraft Onex Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 2011

Design and development

Specifications (Onex with regular span wing)

See also

References

External links