Sling Pilot Academy Debuts New Quieter Airplane

Sling Pilot Academy has expanded its operations to Long Beach, California, unveiling the "Whisper Sling"—a new, noise-reducing pilot training aircraft.

The announcement was made during a ceremony on March 5 at the academy's newly established campus at Long Beach Airport. With this expansion, Sling now operates five training schools across Southern California. The Long Beach facility, which has been running for about a month, currently has about 50 students, with capacity to train hundreds more.

The Whisper Sling aircraft was specifically designed to minimize noise, with the goal of fostering better relationships with the communities surrounding the airports where its flight schools are located. The aircraft features custom exhaust modifications, a specially designed quieter propeller and sound-deadening material in its engine compartment.  According to the company, it is 10 decibels quieter than the regular Sling training aircraft.

“We spent literally 18 months on it and it cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to do this,” Sling’s Co-CEO, Matt Liknaitzky, said. “We realized, even though we do already have the quietest airplanes, we have to do better—because we intend to stay flying in the city (and) we want to be the best neighbor we can.”