EAA AVIATION CENTER, OSHKOSH, Wisconsin — The Experimental Aircraft Association has delivered a Sonex Waiex-B, built in one week at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2022, to the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum at its Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles International Airport near Washington, D.C.
The airplane is on display as an example of amateur-built and recreational aircraft, EAA officials explained.
“Thousands of people participated in the building of this One Week Wonder at Oshkosh just a few years ago to show that building your own airplane is attainable,” said Charlie Becker, EAA’s director of chapters, communities, and homebuilt community manager, who accompanied the aircraft on the journey to its new home. “Now as many as a million people every year will see this aircraft as an example of a modern kit aircraft that can be built with simple hand tools by just about anyone.”
More than 2,200 people were part of the aircraft build over the seven-day period, as they could place a rivet and have their names recorded as a builder. The airplane received its airworthiness certificate and taxied on the final day of EAA AirVenture 2022 and made its first flight a few weeks later.
It has since been part of EAA’s aircraft collection until an agreement was reached this year with the National Air and Space Museum for it to be a permanent part of its displays at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, which range from historic personal aircraft to the legendary Concorde and the Space Shuttle Discovery.
“This airplane will impress visitors with the innovation and technology that is everywhere in the homebuilding movement and recreational aviation,” said Russell Lee, curator of homebuilt aircraft at the National Air and Space Museum. “Although one of the smallest airplanes displayed at the Udvar-Hazy Center, its power to excite visitors about the freedom of flight equals the largest aircraft displayed here.”
The Waiex-B is a two-place, Y-tail aircraft designed by Sonex Aircraft of Oshkosh and powered by a Rotax 912iS engine. It is available as a kit and can be built for around $50,000, according to EAA officials. The aircraft can reach speeds of up to 170 mph, depending on its engine, and can fly more than 500 miles on a tank of fuel.
For more information: EAA.org, AirAndSpace.SI.edu
