Sonex unveils electric-powered sport plane

Aircraft maker Sonex and partner AeroConversions recently unveiled a slick little electric-powered, two-person sport aircraft called, um, the Sonex. The small yellow prototype was announced at a press conference held by the company on Tuesday. Sonex president John Monnett told the crowd that the plane was part of its E-Flight Initiative, and that the lightweight craft took flight using proprietary electric engine technology powered by ten "safe boxes," which contain eight Lithium-Polymer batteries each. The company hopes to extend the current flight time of 45 minutes to an hour by using more efficient versions of the batteries, and says it's exploring ethanol options as part of the initiative. There was no indication as to when the plane would be ready for sale, but Sonex did say that the final product will be "vastly less expensive than other things out there." Which we're pretty sure means Paul Moller better watch his back.

[Via The Raw Feed]

[Austin @ Jul 26th 2007 7:40PM]

Yes. I can finally afford a plane after pilot school!!! ????

[JPQsat @ Jul 26th 2007 7:45PM]

Well this is kinda bad information... i'm a huge kitplane fan and this model is not call a sonex.

The Sonex is almost the same design, but use a straight vertical tail. What we have here is a Waiex, with it's distinctive V tail. It's a small wings version of the Xenos, wich also have a V tail.

I know that the name of the thing is not the point.... but ....

[Peter @ Jul 26th 2007 7:53PM]

A return to three pilot airplanes? Screw the navigator role, make him peddle!

[Peter @ Jul 26th 2007 9:18PM]

Nevermind, if you didn't know airplanes used to have 3 people in the cockpit, you wouldn't understand.

[jBiber @ Jul 26th 2007 7:57PM]

Now all we need to do is use some of that 45% efficent solar paint they were talkin about on digg yesterday... now we've got a usable product.

[RickP @ Jul 26th 2007 8:07PM]

Just mount a honda generator to fly longer :-)

[Eric @ Jul 26th 2007 8:50PM]

They should mount that power system to their Xenos motorglider, so that a pilot could glide/motor a much longer distance than the short-wing Waiex shown here (as long as batteries do not ruin the glide ratio).

[DickHardknocks @ Jul 26th 2007 9:29PM]

WHAT THEY REALLY SHOULD DO IS BRING BACK THE BD-5J ACROSTAR.

http://www.aerospaceweb.org/question/planes/q0256.shtml


most of you will recognize this plane from OCTOPUSSY 007.

An electric, propeller driven airplane is NOWHERE near as fanciful as a microjet powered plane. I think pilots would be willing to pay upwards of $400,000 for a JET AIRPLANE that was redesigned to be safer at this size.

Most airplanes cost about $350,000 anyway at this level. Why not make the best of them better?

[Ian @ Jul 26th 2007 11:43PM]

dude u do realize its a personal aircraft, someone actually owns it and doesnt excatly put it up for sale. plus only 2 were made and ones stripped out and in a museum. so its not going to be able to "come back" as u say it..

[gage @ Jul 26th 2007 11:58PM]

that tail would rip off in mod turb. game over

[kyle allen @ Jul 27th 2007 12:15AM]

i prefer the bradley aerobat. $10,000

[Christopher Fotos @ Jul 27th 2007 11:00AM]

At Aviation Week & Space Technology, we have a podcast with Sonex's John Monnett and the lead engineer on this project, Pete Buck. It's about seven minutes long, and here it is: http://www.aviationweek.com/media/audio/sonex.mp3

We covered the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh where the project was announced, and for readers here who want to see that, I'll venture to add a link to the page: http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/eaa2007.jsp

I'm not an expert in general aviation but from our coverage of the show, I learned that this indeed is a Waiex kit airframe with the e-power hoisted in. In the interview, Monnett said this hasn't flown yet, and that fuel cells were also in the realm of possibility for power. I have no idea how much the proof-of-concept lithium polymer system would add to cost, but I believe the cheapest conventional kit they sell is $25,000. Cheap is always compared-to-what. Cessna unveiled what they're calling the 162 or SkyCatcher, to be qualified under the new Light Sport Aircraft category, with an initial list of $109,500. In the world of fully manufactured (and liability-defended) aircraft, that's low-cost.

Which is one reason I play golf instead.

Christopher Fotos/Web Managing Editor, Aviation Week

[Peter @ Jul 28th 2007 1:20AM]

Why not add solar cells to wings and body?

[murray @ Jul 28th 2007 1:50PM]

No point. The amount of power you could get from solar cells on the plane wouldn't add up to more than a trickle compared to the current the engine draws from the batteries. In other words, it wouldn't increase flying time. In fact the added weight would most likely reduce flying time.

[Bill @ Aug 3rd 2007 4:34AM]

It's been done: http://www.solar-flight.com/sslink.html