All the assets of Sonex Aircraft have been purchased and full production, including the Sonex Highwing, will resume within weeks. The new owner, longtime warbird pilot and general contractor Stephen Osborne, has pledged to fulfill every order on the books and to not just pick up where the previous version of Sonex left off. “We are coming back better,” the new company, named Sonex Aviation, said in a press release issued Friday evening. “The next chapter is powered by a focused, experienced team, assembled to streamline operations, improve production efficiency, and elevate our customers to an exceptional builder experience.”
Former owner and CEO Mark Schaible has been retained as the new company’s Lead Designer. “Freed from the burdens of day-to-day administration, Mark now turns his full attention to what he does best—designing the aircraft our customers love, refining the kits they build, and supporting the pilots who fly them,” the company said. “The drafting table has its master back full-time.”
The new owner is a third-generation pilot and flight school owner and he pounced on the opportunity to pull Sonex back from the brink when Schaible announced in late March that the company was unable to continue. “Sonex is part of how this country builds pilots and how everyday people get into the sky,” Osborne said. “Letting it disappear was never an option. To every customer with a deposit on the books—get your shop space ready. We are open, we are building, and your kit is coming.”
This is fantastic news!
wonderful news
I have the first production QB and I am ready to build it!
Great, great news!
That was quick and is fantastic news.
Great news! Here’s hoping that a solid administrative team is put in place, the offerings are streamlined to the most-successful models, and they all enjoy a long, successful run!
good for kit aircraft./ ga aviation.
Great news & thank you Mr. Osborne.
Hooray!
So good to hear! I wish them all the best 🙂
Glad to hear! Now if they can just get that two place jet going…
Congratulations Sonex –
Awesome news
So relieved to hear this news. Sounds awesome.
Congratulation to the Sonex Team.
Really good news. Best of luck to Osborne and the Sonex team.
Great news! Wishing the new organization the best in continuing the Sonex line of personal aircraft.
That is SO neat!! I needed some good news, what a great story! Makes me want to buy one! I was in a similar situation with an engineered materials company, thank God my partner, an expert in business came along.
Thank you Stephen Osborne!
Great news for the employees as well.
I am cautiously optimistic. As a current builder of a legacy model Sonex, I am concerned that when they say they will “streamline operations”, what they really mean is that they will discontinue support for their legacy models. I hope not…
Commercial aviation supply chains flow directly downstream to GA kit manufacturers. Kit manufacturers serve a market with with less pricing flexibility and hence capital buffer to absorb the shock.
Information Technology is essential for GA kit manufactures now a days. Every part must have characteristics defined in a database so that material substitutions can be found quickly while maintaining safety.
In an environment where two of the most prominent kit aircraft manufacturers in history have nearly failed from supplychain issues they didn’t see coming, IT capability is not a nice-to-have. It’s operational survival infrastructure.