Socata Horizon

GY-80 Horizon
Role	Four-seat touring monoplane
National origin	France
Manufacturer	SOCATA
Designer	Yves Gardan
First flight	21 July 1960
Number built	267
Variants	Socata ST-10 Diplomate

The SOCATA GY-80 Horizon is a French four-seat touring monoplane of the 1960s designed by Yves Gardan and built under licence for Sud Aviation by SOCATA at Nantes and Rochefort.

This aircraft was designed by well-known French designer Yves Gardan during the 1950s. In the latter part of that decade, Sud-Aviation acquired from Gardan a licence to build the design. The prototype first flew in the summer of 1960, and Sud-Aviation (which later became part of SOCATA) manufactured 267 units by the end of 1969, when production was terminated.

The design uses a low-mounted cantilever wing which incorporates four mechanically operated Fowler-type trailing-edge flaps and two Frise-type ailerons. The tricycle undercarriage was partially retractable (a little more than half of each wheel remains exposed in the retracted position). The basic design used a 150 hp (119 kW) Avco Lycoming O-320 flat air-cooled engine driving a fixed-pitch metal propeller, but later models had a 160 hp version of the O-320 and a constant speed propellor. Later still a 180 hp 0-360 engine with a constant speed propeller was available.

Most Horizons were bought by French pilot owners, but examples were exported to several countries including Germany, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and numbers remain in service in 2014.

An improved variant was developed originally as the Super Horizon 2000 and later went into production as the ST 10 Diplomate.

Data from Jane's All The World's Aircraft 1969-70

General characteristics

Performance

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