Sonex Aircraft SubSonex Jet

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • The SubSonex jet is presented as an affordable and fun personal aircraft, with its kit (including engine and quick-build options) costing around $140,000.
  • It is a kit-built aircraft designed for ease of assembly, making it accessible even for novice builders.
  • Despite its speed (around 200 knots) and 400-nm range, it is considered impractical for cross-country travel but highly desirable for its "cool" factor as a personal jet.
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Photo Courtesy of Subsonex

One of our favorite planes, period, the SubSonex embraces its mission, to be a fun jet that you don’t have to be rich to own. The cost of the kit, including the quick-build option, the PBS TJ-100 engine, and a bunch of bells and whistles still comes in at around $140,000. You do then indeed need to build the thing, but Sonex kits are from all accounts designed to make the job easier, even for newbies. It’s fast for a single-place jet, around 200 knots, and its max range at long-range cruise settings is around 400-nm. How practical a cross-country airplane is it? Not very. How cool a person jet is it? Off the charts. We’ll take two, please.

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