TEMECULA, Calif. —Quicksilver Aeronautics reached an important milestone with the receipt of an airworthiness certificate for its first-ever Special Light-Sport Aircraft. This final approval now enables the Southern California producer to begin offering ready to fly models of its aircraft.
“On June 26th we received the airworthiness certificate and the operations limitations sheet for our Special LSA Sport 2SE after a three-hour inspection from the FAA,” said Quicksilver Aeronautics President and CEO Will Escutia.
FAA Aviation Safety Inspectors, John Soltis and Kym Robbins, provided the pink card representing the SLSA airworthiness certificate to Escutia and Chief Operating Officer Dan Perez at the French Valley Airport, approximately 10 miles from the company’s Temecula, California factory.
Soltis expressed his congratulations saying the airplane “looked very good.” Along with the airworthiness certificate, company officials received the Operations Limitations document that is given when a Special Light-Sport Aircraft is accepted by the agency.
“We feel very satisfied that the last milestone to complete our SLSA project has been completed,” Escutia noted. “Dan Perez did an outstanding job leading our company team to this achievement.”
Escutia added that the airplane will be shown and flown in EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2014 at the end of July.
Now that Quicksilver has earned FAA acceptance to produce its Sport S2SE model as a fully-built Light-Sport Aircraft the company will begin using three manufacturing locations in the United States, a method allowed under the ASTM Industry Consensus Standards program and FAA regulations. Beside the Temecula factory, other manufacturing facilities have been established in Reserve, Louisiana, at the St. John Airport led by longtime dealer Gene “Bever” Borne, and in Rochester, Minnesota, under the direction of former sales manager Todd Ellefson. Additional assembly centers are under consideration and will be established as demand requires, according to company officials.
Quicksilver is a longtime kit manufacturer and will continue to offer kits both as ELSA and Experimental Amateur Built versions. Quicksilver’s fully-built Sport S2SE is offered at the retail price of $39,999. Amateur-built kits offer even lower cost for those who enjoy assembling their own plane.
Quicksilver Aeronautics, under new ownership since 2012, is the most prolific builder of light aircraft kits in the world, with more than 15,000 units flying. Quicksilver builds the MX series including the Sprint, Sprint II, Sport, Sport II, Sport 2S and the GT series including the single seat GT 400 and the two place GT 500. All aircraft models have successfully been included on FAA’s approved-kit list. The GT 500 was the first aircraft approved by FAA under the Primary Aircraft category (1993) and the Sport S2SE was approved in June 2014 as a Special LSA. Work is underway to gain FAA acceptance of the GT 500 as SLSA. Quicksilver has dealers throughout the USA and the world with thousands flying in nearly 100 countries.