Quicksilver Aircraft is expanding its manufacturing facilities. The company, which sells a series of light sport aircraft, will retain its main factory in Temecula, Calif., but add two new extension facilities—one in Rochester, Minn., and one in New Orleans. Factory extensions such as these are permitted under LSA rules, and will put Quicksilver closer it its customers, the company says.
Quicksilver’s latest product is the new Sport 2S, a 65-horsepower Rotax 582-powered two seater made of aluminum tubing and Dacron-covered airfoils. The $40,000 airplane is available in two main versions, the 2S and 2SE. The 2S is a kit-built airplane that comes under experimental light sport aircraft (ELSA) rules; the 2SE is manufactured by Quicksilver, sold as a finished airplane, and comes under special light sport aircraft (SLSA) rules.
Quicksilver has 30 dealers worldwide and sells seven other LSAs besides the Sport 2S. The company claims to have sold more than 15,000 airplanes since its roots as an ultralight kit manufacturer in the 1970s. Quicksilver President Will Escutia recently hired Cesar Diaz Perez as the company’s new sales director. Diaz, fluent in Spanish, Chinese, and English, is charged with building Quicksilver’s international business, which already claims 50 percent of the company’s sales.
Thomas A. Horne
Related Articles
