'A neat little package'

He had just pulled off the surprise of the show by flying not one, but four production aircraft all the way from Grand Junction, Colorado, to Oshkosh.

Although Wood and his team had been quietly developing the SE–1 over the past decade, the final production version began to take shape in October, and Spirit Engineering received its special light sport aircraft certificate to produce the SE–1 just a few weeks before AirVenture.

“We came here unannounced, very, very intentionally,” said Wood. “We’re not going to be here with something that hasn’t flown, that’s not designed yet. Flapping our jaw about what the performance is going to be or how great it's going to be. We’re going to stay home in the store, and we'll show up when we’re done developing the airplane and the engine. And, here we are.”

According to Wood, the airplane will take off in 500 feet weighing 740 pounds at sea level on a standard day with an initial climb rate of 750 feet per minute and a cruise speed just over 100 miles per hour.

More impressive than the performance is that Spirit Engineering also designed the inverted v-twin engine that powers the SE–1. “The engine is our engine. We're very creative,” Wood said sarcastically. “We call it the Spirit V2. That's why there's a goldfish bowl over here. Help us name our engine. Help! We're a bunch of engineering nerds. All right, so if someone has a great name for our airplane, our engine, we're all ears.

“This is a neat little package that makes a lot of power,” he said. “It’s not as wide [as an inline boxer engine], so it streamlines nicely as you can plainly see. And it has one other thing that we felt was important: Man, it sounds cool. No one will mistake the sound of this engine for anything else.”

The Spirit V2 engine develops 42 horsepower at 3,000 rpm and burns 2 gph at cruise. With a fuel capacity of 8 gallons, the SE–1 has a no-reserve range of four hours and 400 miles.

The SE–1 is a very light single-place airplane weighing in at a mere 440 pounds empty. Its gross weight of 740 pounds affords a 300-pound useful load, but that’s plenty considering there is little room for baggage. The aircraft was not designed for cross-country travel, but rather for recreation.

“We designed the airplane with an expectation that people would love it because it's pretty,” said Wood. “People come around the corner, they see the airplane for the first time, they're drawn to it like moths to flame because it’s eye candy. It’s shiny.”

A unique feature of the SE–1 are its folding wings, intended to reduce the cost of ownership by enabling an owner to store the aircraft in a garage or enclosed car trailer.

Another uncommon feature—particularly on an LSA—is its trailing link main landing gear. Wood provides three reasons he chose this type of landing gear: “One reason is a trailing arm gives you the effective wheel diameter that's a lot bigger than your actual wheel diameter,” he said. The second reason: “A trailing arm gear is the only gear that deflects from stubbing its toe; if you run into an obstruction, the wheel goes up with enough load.” The third reason is that this setup will make it easier for Spirit Engineering to create a nosewheel version of the SE–1 in the future.

Since the Spirit SE–1 is a single-seat tailwheel airplane, it requires appropriate tailwheel experience to fly for the first time. “Landing is pretty conventional,” said Wood. “A lot of people have asked me what sort of transition do I need to be able to fly? ... As a single-seat airplane, here’s my pat answer so far: Show me three good landings in a Luscombe, and you will not bat an eye flying this airplane.” The Luscombe is known for its powerful rudder and sensitivity to control inputs.

The Spirit SE–1 will be sold ready to fly with a starting price of $69,500, which includes a com radio. Deliveries are expected to begin in the fall of 2025. A transponder with ADS-B Out, landing, taxi, navigation and strobe lights, and an attitude and heading reference system with artificial horizon and turn and bank indicator will be offered as optional equipment.

Wood said Spirit Engineering is prepared to meet market demand for the SE–1. “There's no fiberglass. There's no composite. That makes it seem like a little bit of a throwback, but it's designed to be produced in volume. We have inventory that can be completed fairly quickly, and we’re pretty confident that we need to be at a pretty brisk build rate.”