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Videos: From kit to flight in seven days

By General Aviation News Staff · September 8, 2016 ·

In just a week, the folks behind The Airplane Factory, creators and manufacturers of the South African Sling aircraft, built and flew a Sling 4 at the Sywell Aerodrome, United Kingdom.

Sling 4 Complete

The build happened during the 70th anniversary rally for the Light Aircraft Association.

A complete Sling 4 aircraft kit was packed in South Africa and then delivered to the Sywell Aerodrome, on Aug. 26. Over a seven day period, a 10 person build team, consisting of five company employees and five LAA volunteers, assembled the kit, ground ran the engine and test flew the completed aircraft at the show. The team worked 12 hours a day during the build process, company officials report.

The team

This the second Sling 4 build of its kind. Back in September 2015, the TAF South Africa team built a Sling 4 in only four days, with 40 workers. This aircraft, Sling 4-4-40, was delivered to TAF USA as its Sling 4 demonstrator and has amassed over 650 hours of flight time.

The team documented the build with great photos and videos. A video recap of the day-day build process follows:

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