Manufaktura Lotnicza: Who Builds the ARGON

The factory behind the aircraft we sell in Britain

ARGON gyroplanes and ARGO AH helicopters are designed and built by Manufaktura Lotnicza Sp. z o.o. in Poland, at its own airfield at Sobienie Szlacheckie near Warsaw, and have been since the company started building light aircraft in 2009. Argo Aero UK Ltd is the manufacturer's dealer in the United Kingdom - listed as such on the factory's own dealer page, which is the page worth checking about any company that says it represents a manufacturer, ours included.

This page exists because the question gets answered badly elsewhere. Search for the ARGON and you will find its history confidently attached to other aircraft and other companies. What follows is only what the manufacturer publishes, what the certificates say, and what we can stand behind as its UK dealer.

A factory on an airfield

Sobienie Szlacheckie - EPSJ on the charts - is a grass strip of 778 by 50 metres about forty minutes south-east of Warsaw, and Manufaktura Lotnicza operates it. That is a more useful fact than it first sounds. An aircraft manufacturer that shares a fence with a runway can fly a change the week it is made, rather than trailering an airframe to somebody else's airfield and booking a slot. Design office, research, production, service and the flying schools all sit on the same site.

The company describes its departments as one organisation: design, R&D, production, service and training. In practice that is why a customer question about a part gets an answer from the person who machined it.

What they make themselves

Most light aircraft builders assemble. Manufaktura Lotnicza machines its own titanium parts on its own CNC centre, lays up its own carbon fibre structures, and - since 2018 - makes its own rotor blades rather than buying them in.

The rotor is the part that matters most here. It is the single component a gyroplane cannot compromise on, and for years it was the one thing the factory did not control: quality and lead time both depended on a supplier. Bringing rotor manufacture in-house took years of design work and a production line built for it, and it is what makes the company a full-cycle manufacturer rather than an assembler. Our own About page tells that part of the story in more detail.

About 1,000 hours of handwork go into each aircraft. Every ARGON is built to order: engine, avionics, propeller, rotor, interior and paint are chosen before the build starts, which is why every price we publish is a from-price.

What the factory builds

Two families, both rotorcraft. The gyroplanes are the ARGON 915 iS, the touring ARGON GTL and the three-seat ARGON GTL Triple. The helicopters are the two-seat ARGO AH family. Specifications and prices for all of them sit on our gyrocopters for sale page.

Very few companies build both a gyroplane and a helicopter. It is the reason we can compare the two honestly rather than talking a buyer into whichever one we happen to stock - the figures in gyroplane vs helicopter are both ours.

Where the ARGON is certified

Certification is national, so an aircraft is never simply "certified": it is certified somewhere. For the ARGON GTL, that is six countries, with the United Kingdom in progress.

The documents themselves are published on the ARGON GTL page, and what the British route involves is set out in what is BCAR-T and in the CAA A8-21 Factory Approval announcement.

Buying one in Britain

We are the UK end of that factory: we take the order, agree the specification, keep you informed while it is built, and look after the aircraft afterwards. The GTL is the model we are taking UK orders for now; for the others, where each one stands for UK registration is set out plainly on the range page, because that is the column that decides what you can actually fly here.

Frequently asked questions