Tripp Thurston April 2026 Partnership Announcement
TORRANCE, CA – April 2026 – Sling Aircraft North America is proud to announce a formalized partnership with Flying Finance. This collaboration is designed to provide streamlined, accessible funding for buyers of the legendary Sling 2, the Sling TSi, the Sling High Wing, and the Sling NGT, ensuring the financing experience is just as smooth and modern as the aircraft themselves.
This partnership arrives at an incredibly exciting time for the aviation community. Following the FAA’s Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) final rule, the light sport market has been completely redefined. By evolving past the legacy 1,320-pound weight restriction and focusing on performance-based criteria, the FAA has opened the door for larger, highly capable aircraft.
Sling Aircraft’s journey from the original Sling 2—which founders Mike Blyth and James Pitman famously flew around the world—to the modern TSi and High Wing is a masterclass in aerodynamic evolution. They have consistently built airplanes that pilots simply want to fly.
A massive part of that appeal comes down to the cockpit experience. Sling has perfectly blended roomy, sleek cabins with the pure joy of natural stick controls and a fighter-style throttle located right on the center console, instead of being buried on the dashboard. When you pair that tactile flying experience with a panoramic touch screen Garmin G3X glass panel, you get an aircraft that feels both incredibly advanced and deeply connected to the pilot.
At the heart of their modern 4-place lineup is the Rotax 916iS engine. This powerplant is an absolute game-changer for operating economics. Delivering 160 horsepower with a 2,000-hour Time Between Overhaul (TBO), it burns highly efficient automotive fuel (Mogas) or Avgas. The result is a Sling TSi that cruises effortlessly at 150 knots with an incredibly low operating cost, making it one of the smartest aviation investments a pilot can make.
Beyond the owner operator market, we are incredibly excited to support the commercial flight training sector through the Sling NGT (Next Generation Trainer).
Flight academies are looking for reliable, fuel-injected aircraft that are purpose-built to train the next generation of aviators. Because of its lightweight design and modern safety features, flight schools are experiencing fantastic dispatch reliability. This reliability and enjoyment are fueling Sling’s growth within its own Sling Pilot Academy, where locations along the California coast have expanded from the original Torrance location (KTOA) to locations at Gillespie Field (KSEE), Long Beach (KLGB), and Santa Monica (KSMO). Through this partnership, Flying Finance is offering specialized commercial fleet financing to allow academies to seamlessly scale their NGT operations.
“Sling Aircraft has built an incredibly passionate community because they build airplanes that are genuinely fun to fly and economically brilliant,” said Tripp Thurston, Group President of Flying Finance. “The aviation market is evolving rapidly with MOSAIC, and we are thrilled to provide a modern, transparent financing experience that perfectly complements the innovation of the Sling lineup.”
Founded in 2005 by passionate aviator Mike Blyth and later joined by adventurer James Pitman, Sling Aircraft (formerly The Airplane Factory) has become a global leader in the design and manufacture of high-performance light sport and experimental aircraft. Headquartered near Johannesburg, South Africa, with its North American distributor and Sling Pilot Academy based in Torrance, California, the company is driven by a singular mission: to build highly capable, economically brilliant aircraft that pilots simply love to fly. To prove the durability and performance of their engineering, the founders have famously flown Sling prototypes on multiple global circumnavigations. Today, the Sling lineup—including the Sling 2, Sling TSi, Sling High Wing, and Sling NGT—can be found operating on almost every continent, celebrated for their modern avionics, Rotax efficiency, and unparalleled handling. For more information, visit www.slingaircraftnorthamerica.com and www.slingpilotacademy.com
For nearly a century, FLYING Magazine has been the undisputed voice of general aviation. However, as the industry evolved, it became clear that informing pilots wasn’t enough; we needed to empower them to actually acquire the aircraft we were writing about. In August 2023, FLYING Media Group (now Firecrown Media) acquired the established aircraft finance broker Sky Allies Capital, rebranding it as FLYING Finance. Today, FLYING Finance is not just a lender; we are the financial engine within a massive aviation ecosystem that includes FLYING, Plane & Pilot, AVweb, and Aircraft For Sale. Our mission is to create a frictionless, end-to-end buying experience.
