The company started building
hang gliders and
paragliders in the 1980s, and
ultralight aircraft 1993. In February 2011, the company announced that it was developing a four-seat design to be designated
C4. In February 2016, the company entered receivership, due to its high debt-load. Lawyer Knut Rebholz, a partner of the law firm Mönning & Partner, became the temporary administrator of the company. In April 2017, in collaboration with Vessel Co. of South Korea, the company introduced the new
KLA-100 low-wing, light aircraft. AOPA editor Jim Moore noted that this had been done while the company was undergoing a financial crisis. However, by June 2018 the design was not listed on the company website as being in production. In July 2017, the Flight Design-Design organization, the production facility in Kherson, and all rights to the CT series (CTSW, CTLS, CTSL Supralight, CTLSi, CTLE) was acquired by
Lift Air, a division of
Lift Holding from
Eisenach, Germany. The company has since moved to the
Kindel Airport, near Eisenach where final inspection, test flights and engineering management are performed. Lars Joerges is the new managing director. At
AERO Friedrichshafen in April 2019, the now-reorganized company announced two new models, the
F2 and
F4. The F4 will be a four-seat airplane powered by a
Rotax 915iS turbocharged engine, while the F2 will be a two-seat European microlight, as a modular design that will include a future
electric aircraft variant, to be designated the F2e. Work on the four-seat
Flight Design C4 has been stalled, but not abandoned, and it "remains an aspirational product" for the company. In June 2019 the company manufacturing the CT line,
AeroJones Aviation Technology Company, announced plans for a new factory to build the design for the Asian market at the
Dalu General Airport in
Zhenjiang,
China. The plant is expected to be operational by the end of 2019, employ 200-250 people and produce 240 CT aircraft per year. Following the
2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Flight Design temporarily halted operations at the Kherson facility and circulated a letter to Ukrainian staff, announcing plans to expand manufacturing capacities in Czech Republic and offering staff to transfer to the new location. The company began to supplement production in a joint venture with
Virazh in
Almaty,
Kazakhstan in 2024. == Aircraft ==