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News & Media Sonex reports Highwing maiden flight

Sonex reports Highwing maiden flight

Two-seat aerobatic traveler

July 2, 2025 By Jim Moore

The Sonex Highwing prototype lifted off June 30, and Joe Norris, a member of the company advisory board, completed a successful, if not quite squawk-free, flight.

The Sonex Highwing lifted off June 30, just under four years after the company announced the new model, and completed a brief but successful flight with some fine-tuning to be done and additional test flights planned with wheelpants and landing gear leg fairings added. Photo courtesy of Sonex.
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The Sonex Highwing lifted off June 30, just under four years after the company announced the new model, and completed a brief but successful flight with some fine-tuning to be done and additional test flights planned with wheelpants and landing gear leg fairings added. Photo courtesy of Sonex.

The company based in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, logged the long-sought milestone weeks before EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, and just under four years since the new model was announced. The company posted details and photos from the flight online, the latest of many updates tracking the progress of the project and revealing details of the design and how builders will put it together.

The first flight was "kept brief due to a passenger-side door latch issue, however, all engine temperatures were in the green and the aircraft handled as-expected with only slight rigging adjustments needed," the company noted in the July 1 update. The prototype's specifications are "on-target," with the aircraft currently weighing 816 pounds empty. The company posted photos and detailed, preliminary specifications and performance data, subject to change, that includes a shorter wingspan for the aerobatic variant, a little more than three feet shorter than the 26-foot, 2-inch wing of the non-aerobatic wing.

At 800 pounds, the aerobatic version is designed to be a little lighter, according to the posted specs, with a maximum gross weight of 1,230 pounds for the aerobatic category, and load limits of +6G/-3G. Flying at 1,340 pounds reduces those limits to +5.5G/-2.5G. In the utility category, the Sonex Highwing will have a maximum gross weight of 1,500 pounds, including 680 pounds of useful load including up to 30 gallons of fuel.

Sonex CEO and Highwing designer Mark Schaible, left, shakes the hand of test pilot and company advisor Joe Norris following the maiden flight. Photo courtesy of Sonex.

The aircraft, with an expected stall speed of 50 mph and a cruise speed of 159 mph, was not designed with backcountry aviation in mind, the company said when announcing the new model in 2021. (Future test flights of the prototype will include the installation of wheelpants and gear leg fairings.) "Winning a STOL competition or flying off a gravel bar is not the intended mission," the company wrote then. "Instead, we wanted to bring expanded utility and ease of pilot access to the existing Sonex mission of fun everyday local flying, aerobatics and fuel-efficient [and] fast long cross-countries to the high wing world."

The company is offering production reservations for a $500 deposit, refundable except for a $50 cancellation fee. Final kit pricing has not been announced.

Sonex completed the first flight of its new Highwing model on June 30. Photo courtesy of Sonex.
Jim Moore
Jim Moore
Managing Editor-Digital Media
Digital Media Managing Editor Jim Moore joined AOPA in 2011 and is an instrument-rated private pilot, as well as a certificated remote pilot, who enjoys competition aerobatics and flying drones.
Go to Jim Moore's Profile
Topics: Experimental

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