After the initial shock has worn off I’m still surprised and saddened by this. Having the Highwing enter production made me think that they would be in decent shape financially. It’s got to be heartbreaking for everyone there for the closure to happen and also to see the Highwing stopped. Having Mark write that he’d still be willing to provide support in the future give me some hope that not all is lost.
I don’t believe that Mark would be able to sell just IP without court approval at this point but be able to point in the right direction to get offers submitted. Otherwise it may take a lawyer or waiting for auction. For making parts like the fuel tank, fiberglass parts and canopy there are probably tools located at the supplies that Sonex likely owns that could be purchased during bankruptcy. Otherwise it may take a lawyer or waiting for auction. I see this playing out several ways in order of amount of cash necessary/recovered for creditors:
Best case is someone infuses enough cash to buy the company, restructure debt and can keep enough employees to continue.
Second would be someone purchase enough IP, tooling, inventory during bankruptcy and could run a business selling some type of plans or kits (possibly simplified kits). This could also be another kit manufacturer.
Third is someone purchases enough to provide service parts. The big issue is it is more cost effective to purchase several parts at a time and having one account with vendors. This could be a company designed to do this or some sort of crowd sourced effort.
Fourth is purchasing the IP and open sourcing it. It’s a neat idea but the big issue would be the parts that need tooling to produce. I believe at least for the legacy Sonex there are ways to produce them although some would require making molds/tooling.
To crowdsource and fund an entity would take a bit of planning and it’s also possible the IP assets could get sold off to a higher bidder. It’s something to consider and plan for though. I do hope that someone is able to purchase and continue running Sonex as a company though. Unfortunately I see a lot of uncertainty for the next few months.
These are thoughts from another thread but I wanted to share it …
This is surely some amazingly disappointing news.
I do wonder though …
I have the original “A model” Sonex and it comes with complete set of plans with drawings for every part that can be scratch made (excepting canopy, brakes, & wing spar) by the builder from raw stock.
I know the High Wing is a kit so the plans are not detailed. Could, or would, Sonex (or whomever picks up the pieces) be able to put out a set of detailed plans so that HW kit builders would have an opportunity to finish their projects even if they have to manufacture parts from raw stock?
This was one of my issues, the completed plane I bought didn’t come with the plans. I was about to buy them from Mark once I did the Sonex ownership transfer but now I’m not sure how I will get them. Any ideas for that or where to get engine mount bushings would be appreciated. If I have to, I will 3D print molds for the mounts but I’d rather have a known good product rather than DIY.
Speeking of oops fittings. I had just ordered one from Sonex. Then I heard this. I thought the oops fitting was going to solve my leak problem. But I just went to the airplane this morning, I figured I would remove the fuel level probe I just installed from Red Avionics. Well not working like I thought. The probe is just turning which means the insert is turning and I cannot get the probe out. Has anyone else ran into this? And any suggestions on how to remove the probe without cutting it off? Thanks everyone
Since there was some discussion in this thread about crowdfunding, I figured it was worth sharing that Bryan Walstrom over at the experimental aircraft channel posted a GoFundMe that he setup.
It feels uncomfortable to comment, but I’ll state what I assume is obvious. Though it may make folks feel better to send money, it’s way too early for that.
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.
Throwing money at the problem would be like volunteering to help bail out a sinking ship without patching the hole. I hope, with all my heart, the company can re-organize and come back in a smaller but stronger form. Show me a sensible plan and I’ll help all I can.
My version of a perfect Sonex LLC would be a much trimmed down company offering:
The Original Sonex for plans builders. The airplane the launched the company. The best plans I’ve ever seen. No tech support. Community supported.
The B Model Waiex for low wing kit builders. A unique and alluring design.
The High Wing because it’s so cool and a very practical design.
That’s it. My two cents (and worth about 1/2 that).
Those are great points. They definitely need to streamline. I still think a Sonex B and Waiex B kit would be nice to produce along with the High Wing Kit.
At minimum I hope they are able to spin off the parts and Aerovee groups so that parts are readily available.
Yeah, I agree with that @WesRagle. Sad to see Sonex go out like this, but it’s probably inevitable at this point. Someone will most likely acquire the IP somewhere down the road and resurrect some parts of what the company does today.
Very good idea. I’ll add that I know of at least one scratch builder that put most, if not all of the plans/parts in CAD so that he could laser cut everything. That could be a source of income from potential scratch builders.
But I still don’t know if it solves the drop-off in sales in that a good portion of that is people buying completed Sonex’s instead of buying kits from Sonex.
I believe the reason there are so many used models on the market is because they are so fun and easy to build. There are a lot of repeat offenders. No builder assistance needed.
I have already received my AeroInjector, air cleaner and throttle. I realized that I did not have a pdf of the manual for those products. I went to the Sonex website and downloaded a copy. Some of you might want to do the same.
Can anybody with a set of unmounted brake rotors tell me how thick they are? Also I think they are 4” diameter or so, but if you could measure it I’d like to buy some material.
My rotors are 4.5" in diameter, 0.250" thick, and the holes are countersunk down to about 0.050" from the backside (e.g. 0.050" is NOT beveled). You probably know already, but it’s a standard 82° angle countersink.
