Pilot's Post - Paul Dye Built SubSonex Jet Flies

A proud Paul Dye after completing first flight in his SubSonex!

When the Editor-in-Chief of Kitplanes Magazine decides to build your jet aircraft kit, it gets everyone's attention. In the age of social media, Paul Dye's SubSonex build has thousands of people watching, and we're very proud and excited to announce that Paul's SubSonex serial number JSX0021 made its first flight on March 24th! "First flight complete!," writes Paul. "The weather smiled on us, I had a great crew that made themselves available on short notice and we got Loki off the ground for the first time."

Paul Dye's SubSonex s/n JSX0021

Paul took delivery of his SubSonex Personal Jet at his home in Dayton, Nevada on November 1st 2018, and with the very complete SubSonex Quick Build Kit, the build took roughly 425 hours to complete over 85 days, not including paint work. That's fast, yet Paul still took his time executing a meticulous and beautiful build while documenting much of the build on the Kitplanes Newsline Blog.

The front office of Paul Dye's SubSonex.

Speaking of paint, professional aircraft painter John Stahr gave Paul's jet the full treatment, with airbrushed NASA Flight Director logos over cosmic nebulae (Paul Dye retired as NASA's longest serving Flight Director for Human Spaceflight before taking-over the helm at Kitplanes), and plenty of fun little Easter eggs to keep admirers poring over the aircraft for hours.

Paul Dye with his pride and joy after the long paint process was completed.

Congratulations Paul, Gold Wings are on the way!

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