Our story
SpaceSeen was founded in Riyadh to make it possible to build and fly experimental aircraft in Saudi Arabia. Today we are the authorised Sling Aircraft distributor for the Middle East. Our first project was a Sling TSi for our first customer, Olivier Molinari: we helped him import the kit, build the aircraft in our workshop and take it through registration and certification with GACA.
The first Saudi-built Sling cleared to fly under instrument flight rules.
Olivier Molinari is a French pilot who has lived and worked in Saudi Arabia for more than a decade. He wanted to build and fly his own aircraft in the Kingdom, where no Sling had ever been built. He chose the four-seat Sling TSi, and he chose to build it here, with us.
We brought his Sling TSi kit (serial number 245) into the Kingdom and gave the project a home in our Riyadh workshop, where the building log was opened in February 2021. Parts and avionics came in from Sling in South Africa and from suppliers in the United States, and our team handled the orders, freight and customs clearance. As an amateur-built aircraft, HZ-FRA follows the 51% rule: the owner did most of the building himself, with our workshop and team behind him.
There was no established path for an amateur-built aircraft in Saudi Arabia, so we worked one out with the General Authority of Civil Aviation. GACA representatives visited our workshop, we agreed a certification roadmap, and every stage was carried out under GACA's direct supervision: registration as HZ-FRA, inspection, the airworthiness application and the flight-test programme.
On 8 November 2024, HZ-FRA lifted off from Thumamah Airport in Riyadh, the first Sling built in the Kingdom. It went on to complete its 40-hour Phase I flight-test programme, and the report was submitted to GACA on 2 March 2025.
On 1 June 2025, GACA added IFR approval to HZ-FRA's certificate of airworthiness. That makes it the first Saudi-built Sling cleared to fly under instrument flight rules. With a Garmin G3X Touch and GTN 650Xi panel, a two-axis autopilot and a built-in oxygen system, it is a serious cross-country aircraft.
HZ-FRA has since flown more than 200 hours from over twenty airports in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Greece and France. In June 2026 it was flown to France, including a 1,103 nm leg from Heraklion to Marseille. On 16 July 2026 it flew 846 nm non-stop from Heraklion, Crete to Red Sea International Airport.
Everything we learned on HZ-FRA is now the path we offer every SpaceSeen customer: the import, the build, the paperwork and the work with GACA.
Honestly, the more unique and compelling story here isn't the distance, it's what HZ-FRA represents:
- The first Sling aircraft ever built in Saudi Arabia
- The first built under direct GACA supervision
- The first Saudi-built Sling authorized for IFR operations
- Delivered internationally, across multiple FIRs, without a single technical discrepancy
That combination is genuinely rare…
We are working with the authorities toward a framework that would allow locally built Sling aircraft to support pilot training in the Kingdom. Flight schools, investors and partners who share that goal are welcome to contact us.
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