Overview
Porto Aviation Group is an Italian manufacturer, formerly Swiss Excellence Airplanes, that designs and builds the Risen, a carbon-fiber high-performance two-seater known for aerodynamic efficiency and high cruise speeds in the microlight and ultralight class. The company also produces the Idrovario line of variable-pitch propellers. It is active and in production.
Heritage
The Risen was developed to push efficiency and speed to the limits of the European ultralight class, and the program moved under the Porto Aviation Group name after its Swiss Excellence origins. Successive versions have added turbocharged Rotax power and refined the airframe; the current SV 916 SuperVeloce uses the 160 hp Rotax 916iS. The company has set and publicised class speed records with the type.
Design Signature
Porto Aviation’s signature is aerodynamic efficiency: the Porto Aviation Risen SV 916 is a slender carbon-fiber V-tail with retractable gear, a constant-speed propeller, a roughly 20:1 glide ratio, and a standard airframe parachute, built to cruise in the speed bracket of certified four-seat retractables on a fraction of the fuel. The in-house Idrovario propeller is part of the same efficiency focus.
For Owners
The Risen is in current production. In the United States the retractable gear and constant-speed propeller place it outside the Light-Sport category, so it is owned and flown on an Experimental certificate. Porto Aviation is a low-volume Italian maker, so prospective owners should weigh parts availability and type-specific service depth, which lag the larger composite manufacturers, and budget for the specialised support a high-performance experimental airframe requires.