We tried to get an early start by racing to Wilson airport before the sun rose only discover that we had left our all important backup Garmin 495 behind … Right now we are on the apron at Khartoum International airport waiting for our “agent” by the name of Ayatollah to organize 200 litres of

Another perfect day in Africa! Finally, having left the airfield at 20h30 we’re settled into Cassie’s place, “the Sugar Bowl” in Langata, Nairobi. We’ve decided to report on the day backwards, since things have definitely got better and better as the hours have passed! So here goes – Just finished up a feast of rare

What a long day, week, month (and five years!). Getting to Lilongwe today was more than just a one day flight, it was the culmination of all the hard effort leading to the flight. The seven day Sling was successfully assembled in seven days only because of the extent of the dedicated development work, testing

The final touches are being put on ZU-SOL just 10 hours before take-off for Europe. She looks beautiful in her new paint job, has 4 25 liter additional ferry fuel tanks fitted and is just being subjected to a final inspection. This is what things look like at 18h30. Here are a couple of shots

Today the Sling 5577 completed its first test flight.  See some photos below of this wonderful day.

What a week – the highs and lows just didn’t stop! By yesterday morning, Friday 3 March 2011, the final day, the team was beginning to get quite serious cabin fever and a strange “Big Brother” sensation was beginning to descend upon everyone. Nevertheless, all pulled their weight on the final straight (though some more

The Sling 7 day build is getting along fabulously. Photos below show the team members and the developments to late afternoon on the second day (Sunday). All bets are still on for 7 days, if not 6. Team members are –Men : Mike Blyth, Jean d’Assonville, James Pitman, Gareth Bosch, Vince NtuliWomen: Nomfundo Xulu, Charmaine

One problem with building an airplane in 7 days is that there’s not a whole lot of time left over to report developments to the rest of the world. Anyhow, we’re now 5 days down (it’s 08h30 on Thursday morning) and our baby is really beginning to look like something that may actually fly quite

On 26 February 2011, in Hangar 44 Tedderfield Air Park, The Airplane Factory team and friends will commence the building of a standard Airplane Factory Sling LSA from scratch in seven days. Working as many hours as necessary in order to complete the aircraft on time, the full team will be living on the airfield

Andrew Lane, the purchaser of the first Sling built by The Airplane Factory for delivery to a customer, had the public christen his hangar at Tedderfield on Saturday evening 5 February. This also posed the opportunity to get all 6 Slings in the air together on one of the most beautiful Johannesburg evenings in months.