Why the Extra 300 Is the Greatest Aerobatic Aircraft Ever Built
Roll rates that defy belief, a symmetrical wing that flies as happily inverted as upright, and a safety record that lets you push to the edge. An honest love letter to the Extra 300.
Ask a hundred aerobatic pilots to name the finest aerobatic aircraft ever built and you will get a lot of the same answer. The Extra 300 is not the fastest aircraft in the sky, nor the most expensive. What it is, is the most honest: a machine that does exactly what you ask, instantly, and forgives you while you learn to ask better.
A wing that does not care which way is up
Most aircraft have a wing designed to generate lift in one direction. Roll them inverted and they fight you. The Extra uses a symmetrical aerofoil (the wing is a mirror image top and bottom), which means it flies as comfortably upside-down as right-side up. For aerobatics, this is everything. Sustained inverted flight, outside loops, and knife-edge passes stop being a struggle and start being a language.
The roll rate
The Extra 300 rolls at roughly 400 degrees per second. To put that in context, it can complete a full 360° roll faster than you can say “did we just…”. That responsiveness comes from oversized ailerons running almost the full span of the wing. It makes the aircraft feel like an extension of your hands.
Built to be pushed
- Airframe: carbon-composite wings and a steel-tube fuselage, stressed to a design limit of +10 / −10 g, roughly double what you will ever ask of it in an experience flight.
- Engine: a 300 hp Lycoming AEIO-540 with fuel injection and an inverted oil system, so it keeps running happily however you orient it.
- Power-to-weight: enough to climb vertically and keep going.
That margin is exactly what makes the Extra safe. When an aircraft is engineered to survive far more than you will ever demand of it, the envelope you actually fly in is comfortable, predictable and enormously forgiving.
Why we chose it
We could have bought something cheaper to run. We didn’t, because the Extra 300 is the aircraft that lets a first-timer feel completely secure and lets a competition pilot chase a perfect score, all in the same airframe, on the same afternoon. It is the aircraft world champions trust, and it is the aircraft we trust with you.
Want to feel it for yourself? Book an experience → and find out why the fuss is justified.
Keep reading
The AircraftExtra 300 Aerobatics: What Makes It Excel
The symmetrical wing, the roll rate, the power: the design traits that make Extra 300 aerobatics feel effortless, explained for the enthusiast in you.
The AircraftExtra 300 Hire: The Practical Guide for Pilots
Thinking about Extra 300 hire? Who it suits, what you need to qualify, and how to fly one of the finest aerobatic aircraft, without the cost of owning it.