Hello everyone, I am Mark Schaible, owner of Sonex LLC. I am speaking to you today to convey some bad news: Sonex is closing its doors effective immediately.
This decision is necessitated by a severe drop-off in sales and our bank’s unwillingness to carry-forward our debts given some unprofitable years. We’ve had to make this decision very suddenly as a perfect storm of bank pressure, lack of sales, increasing costs, competition from our own aircraft in the used market, and cashflow realities are not allowing us to continue our work.
It’s very important to me to convey this message to you personally. That is why I am giving you this message in a video instead of simply publishing an impersonal statement. Please know that we have fought tooth-and-nail to make Sonex successful.
I have been involved in the Sonex Family since 2003 and have owned the company since 2022. It is incredibly painful for me to bring this news to you today, and my wife and I will be filing a personal bankruptcy in addition to the bankruptcy of the business. We are now unemployed and struggling. We have given everything we could have possibly given to this business, and for the second time since the passing our dear friend Jeremy Monnett, Sonex has broken my heart.
As most of you know, there has been another high-profile bankruptcy in our industry in recent years, but unfortunately, this one will be different. Barring an 11th hour investment or purchase allowing the operation to continue, this will not be a reorganization of our debts but will be much more severe.
While I know such an 11th hour miracle is unlikely, both John Monnett and myself are very interested in finding someone willing to step up and support the worldwide Sonex fleet in some capacity. That includes completion of the work required to ship Sonex Highwing kits. We are speaking with key vendors and other contacts about how that can possibly work, but again, it will take someone other than John or myself to make it happen. If you are watching or reading this announcement and have the interest and resources to take-on that role, please get in touch. I am unlikely to benefit financially from such an arrangement, but please know that I will support the efforts of anyone willing to step-up in good faith, to the best of my ability.
Many people are going to be negatively affected by this situation: Vendors, many of which we consider to be like family, our staff, and our customers. To all of you, I wish to express my most sincere apologies for this situation. I have enjoyed great relationships with so many of our customers and will sorely miss being able to talk to you and support your dreams of building and flying your own aircraft.
With respect to the Sonex staff, our current team are among the finest, most talented and dedicated people I have ever had the pleasure of working with. They weigh heavily in the hearts of Char and I, and we plan to check-in with them frequently. Our only consolation is knowing that with their talents and dedication, they will earn a lot more money elsewhere than they have with Sonex. If you meet any members of our staff on the street, at AirVenture, or online, I urge you all to treat them with dignity and respect, even if you’re angry.
I know that many of you will be angry, will be losing money, and will find this announcement difficult to accept or understand. I joined EAA Chapter 44 in Brockport, NY when I was 14 years old. My late father had to drive me to the meetings each month. Believe me when I say that this is not how I want my EAA story end.
—Mark Schaible
This is very sad. I am building a RANS S-21 and have no association with Sonex, but it is always sad to see a small aviation business fail. I hope someone is able to step forward and pick up the baton and carry Sonex forward.
I am so sorry to hear this and was extremely impressed with a video walkaround of the Sonex Hiwing posted on YouTube. I am a repeat/builder and it was on my “next build” list as a keeper. Our heartfelt prayers go out to you and your family.
Such a tragedy for the experimental aircraft industry, aviation and it’s customers.
Mark Cuban, Elon Musk, Keanu Reeves…are you seeing this?
A long story. I’ve witnessed much of it in my 70 + years. I’m saddened. Not much else to say.
Why was I always seeing sonex adverts on here if they were running out of cash?
Wow that is tough but kudos to Mark for telling it like it is. I for one would gladly contribute to a fund to keep Sonex alive, and I have no intent of building one. Just like the company and their innovative designs. Keep the Faith, Mark, Hope Springs Eternal, especially at Easter!
This is so sad to hear. I am really bummed they could not make it. Hope there is someone who can step in and save this company.
Yes this is sad but Mark had no problem accepting deposits, taking money for tail kits, and even asked people to pay in full for a kit he knew deep down, they couldn’t deliver. My gut said bail in January when they were behind in delivering what they promised but gave them the benefit of the doubt and waited. Even stuck with them when they delayed yet again in early March. My gut proved right today. I’m only out the deposit, but still feel a bit dismayed as Sonex didn’t have the decency to notify customers directly, they resorted to social media to get the word out.
It sounded like the bank suddenly called the note to me. Hard to blame then for trying to keep business going and get over the hump with the new kit. Nobody is losing more than Mark if he is going into personal bankruptcy due to this as well. I’m out the fuselage kit deposit and I don’t blame them one bit.
That was tough to watch. It is so sad and stinks for all affected. The high wing looks so promising. I don’t want this to descend into political finger pointing, but $250k starter homes, $70k pickup trucks, and 10-20% yearly increases in property taxes and auto/home/health insurance are killing disposable income. This isn’t the sole reason, but it’s a factor.
Look at Harley’s rapidly dwindling market share in the motorcycle market. Most people I know struggle to afford $30k for a car, let alone a fair weather vehicle on two wheels that will take five-plus years to pay off. Most folks will buy the twenty-year-old Honda Shadow for a couple grand that will run reliably for another twenty years with mere oil changes. Yes, there are demographic factors, but lack of leisure income is an undeniable factor.
I had (and still have some) hope that MOSAIC and the Sport Pilot rework would give GA a boost, but the RV-10 I dream of building would easily exceed $200k, so that ain’t gonna happen. The fact that Sonex is a more economical airplane to build makes it especially sad for those dreaming of aircraft ownership. I know several guys who have Sonex/Onex airplanes and love them. Hopefully someone steps up and gives this story a happy ending.
We had fewer than 20 billionaires in 1980- and the richest of them was worth less than $3B.
Since then over $50 trillion has moved from US middle class, to the billionaires-who now number over 1,350.
Billionaires don’t build or buy little piston airplanes.
It is a sad video for sure and serves as a canary in the coal mine. But I think that it is high time, and we all need to face the fact that the whole world, (especially the USA)has gone so deep into debt that there is no way it can ever recover. Derivatives and credit default swaps among banks are so entangled with one another that the big name money lenders are just one big train of dominoes falling one after another. Sonex is just the little guy on the field that only a few will even notice. The big players are the major banks and private lenders like Blackrock and others. Airlines are announcing bankruptcy on a daily basis now and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
Soon, Someone will come along with a new electronic currency that tracks your every move and shuts down your ability to purchase anything at all if you disagree with the political agenda of those who put this system into existence, much like the social credit score in China and other countries today. Privacy is a thing of the past with every appliance in your house, car, traffic light and even your doorbell having a camera and a microphone to spy on you.
Expect many if not most corporations to go bankrupt and expect banks to fail. We have known this was coming for a long time, but most were so intoxicated with the gravy train of cash from mounting debt that few would listen, until now.
Sadly I’m expecting to see this happen to other small US companies over the next few years, This entire country is a hot financial mess, and it’s only getting worse daily. In my 65 plus years I’ve seen some nasty financial stuff happening here, some worse than others, all depending on who’s running the country at the time. This is no different. Folks are defaulting like crazy on loans with insane interest, and that makes banks and lenders scared to loan out anything, to anyone, as Mark has just found out unfortunately. I wish him and the entire Sonex team all the luck I can muster to come out of this in one piece.
The view from Australia is the US is insolvent and trading bankrupt across the board, your a total basket case with no hope of survival and you all voted for it….I and others I know have removed completely from the US in terms of buying or dealing, its extreme risk. Run by lunatics and become the pariah of the world, so sad but true. The US crash started a while and will get worse by the day moving forward, Sonex is but a very small example of the train wreck….good luck you’re going to need it…
Sadly a majority did not vote for it- merely a plurality.
That plurality is finding out, now.
You ignorantly think this all happened since the last election.
The debt problem has been building for decades. It is just now hitting critical mass where it costs more just to pay the interest than this highly indebted economy can produce.
That is why the world is going to war to hide it. Whether one agrees or disagrees with the current administration, this problem is not new, it is simply mature and ripe.
This started long before the last election but it makes it easy to just blame the current guy. It is guys like you that ignored the warning signs for the last couple decades but simply looked the other way. If you think only the USA is screwed you live in a very blindered world.
I’m not sure who you are referring to when you say, “Run by Lunatics…” If you are referring to the current administration, it has been in office for just over a year. A company doesn’t go bankrupt in a year. If it isn’t the current administration, just who are the lunatics? You don’t impress me too much with your post on this matter. It says a lot about you, so your absence from the US is not missed.
This is really upsetting and sad. Not a Sonex owner, but I’ve bought accessories from them on several occasions. When calling for technical support, it was not uncommon for Mark himself to pick up the phone. He always seemed un-rushed when talking to me and it was more like a couple of pilots hanging out at the airport rather than a strictly-business conversation. I wish him and all the Sonex people well and will hope and pray for the best possible outcome for all affected by this sad news.
His new High Wing was a promising airplane. I sat in the prototype last summer. I hope some company can pick up that design. As for the Sonex, its market is probably saturated, as he indicated in the video. I imagine Aircraft Spruce will swoop in and grab the Sonerai plans. It sounds as if he has been walking a tight rope on financing, and it didn’t end well. I wish him and his wife the best. He’s starting over from near zero now.
So. Much. Winning.
Heh. There is a Sonex popup ad at the bottom of the page…
They were one of our first advertisers and we have pulled down their ads but it will be awhile before the cache is cleared.
Sat in the highwing at KOSH/EAA. It was a total miss, sorry, you cannot miss like that. Not literally in the S-21 and RV15 shadows.
Simple. Zero politics required.
Go back to studying 1953, “Ajax” and “Boot”. Then add is some AIPAC $ and the Epstein files…
At least the AUD fiat is only 60% insolvent- that’s a bit high to brag on when not of “reserve” fiat currency status. The real crooks were the ones unpegging gold going fiat in the first place. Same boat AUD/USD.
The story is told about the old flight school instructor who asked his class on the first day to tell him what makes airplanes ✈️ fly. After a few failed answer attempts, the instructor went to the chalkboard and drew a large dollar $ sign which got a laugh from the students who were expecting a complicated explanation about aerodynamics.
Well, The money equation can be even more complex than explaining low pressures and coefficient of lift ratios. So Let’s just say for a moment that we all used gold to make purchases every time we go to Walmart or want a soda out of a Coke machine. I suppose the technology exists and could make change and count it back in smaller gold or silver coins, but the price of gold would be forever changing as goods and services expanded in the economy. Then there would be the problem of having a limited supply of gold as the population increased. There wouldn’t be enough to go around. Then there is the Weimar Republic wheelbarrow money problem where politicians print fiat paper money so fast that the wheelbarrow is worth more than the paper money it’s hauling. Crooked Politicians will waste money when given the opportunity. The problem is exactly as our founding fathers warned. They said, If we do not choose Godly men as our statesmen, then we would have unprincipled and unscrupulous men who would waste the public moneys and squander the public trust. It has been going for so long now that the financial structure is crumbling beneath us. I certainly affirm that the gold standard gave us a unit of measure that we could all agree on, the rapidly increasing price of gold is not due to the value of gold increasing globally. The price of gold is increasing because the value of the dollar is inflating rapidly.
a couple of guys have building sonex a/c in my eaa 1279 what are they to do now?
pack it away securely to prevent corrosion and hope and wait and see if someone else buys the plans, type data, the STC’S, patents AND the remains of the company and reintroduces kit production. i.e. WAG AERO, UNIVAIR, AIRCRAFT SPRUCE, A BILLIONAIRE, ETC.
or part out what is completed and inspected to SONEX owners of completed and flying aircraft that have a need for a specific spare part.
Keep building. I am building from a kit and see no reason to stop. There is enough support from the community of Sonex builders to solve any potential questions or issues.
Keep building. I have a kit and see no reason to stop and not complete it. There is enough support available from the community of sonex builders to solve potential challenges.
very sorry
I notice there is a Rotax engine conversion out there for the aircraft. I would make it a standard option because having an unsupported experimental engine (unless you really like supporting them) is a real turn off. If you build the aircraft and it uses a well-supported standard engine, then you can keep it flying. the rest of the aircraft is pretty long lived and easily maintained without specialized knowledge. so sell it with a Rotax standard.
(there is a reason all Van’s aircraft us a standard engine and you can have an optional experimental engine if you want but it is not necessary to have one to build the aircraft.)
If you are referring specifically to the AeroVee engine, the majority of the parts are available from other vendors. In addition, there are other VW conversions available such as Revmaster and Hummel.
Even then it requires a niche mechanic that understands the AeroVee and the Rotax is standard. and most A&P can deal with them. I am not saying that the other engines are bad buy many builders who are not interested in building everything want a standard engine. The RVs are designed around a stock engine but that does not mean you can’t put something else in.
May of the builders I have met are comforting with building as that is a very straightforward process but engine require knowledge a lot of people don’t have. the same thing goes for instruments you want instruments that the local electronic tech can deal with.
you can increase you market tremendously if the aircraft is simple and any part that is not straightforward like engines there is an expert out there readily available that can make it run safely.