https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2017/august/16/pistons-prop-up-airplane-market
Cirrus #1 with 151 deliveries for $120m
Tecnam 87 deliveries for $20m
Beechcraft 40% down with 6 Bonanzas and 8 Barons. More a hobby than a business now.
Piper almost doubled revenues with 23 Archers and 15 (currently grounded) M600.
The data is here.
Textron revenues for all types of GA aircraft were roughly ten times that of Cirrus, which must contribute to Beech’s ability to make a few piston engined planes – somebody else covers the overhead. Diamond sold off the DA42 and DA40 instead, seemingly betting on the come.
Mooney appears to be dead again – no surprise.
It was apparent to me ten years ago that Tecnam would take over the Euro-style Rotax powered two seater market.
Experimental amateur built is more interesting to me that any of the above when talking about new construction piston engined singles. Just my POV.
Silvaire please don’t tell me a trained world- and number-savvy engineer like you compares Textron sales numbers including all their twin turboprops and twin jets to Cirrus making essentially one type of SEP.
Priceless. Luckily you didn’t quote BBJ GA aircraft…
Obviously the point was how and why Beech under Textron continues to make a very small number of singles.
I went looking for the price of a new Archer… This 2001 review says $300k (it also shows what happens when the manufacturer of the product advertises in your magazine 
) so maybe $400k now. I do wonder what the market is these days, but with numbers as small as this the demand could be coming from anywhere.
Isn’t the really surprising thing here the uptick in piston aircraft sales?
No, because it is rather easy to improve sales from such a low base number as in 2016.
That rebound in PA28 sales is just because of one sinle fleet order from some state-owned flying schoolithe middle east or so. No signs of general interest returning (no surprise).
boscomantico wrote:
That rebound in PA28 sales is just because of one sinle fleet order from some state-owned flying schoolithe middle east or so. No signs of general interest returning (no surprise).
No surprise to me. Over time as sales of factory built light GA planes remain low, manufacturers seem to do doing one of two things: consolidating (e.g. under Textron ownership) or selling all or part of the company into state ownership – to China or in the case of Piper, Brunei. I see Tecnam as one noteworthy exception.
Silvaire wrote:
Experimental amateur built is more interesting to me that any of the above when talking about new construction piston engined singles. Just my POV.
It’s also the view of most people involved in GA. The irrelevance of the GAMA statistics for anything but jet and turboprop is comical at best 
It covers probably only 5-10% of world wide new aircraft for private GA. Not even Aquila is there, one of the best selling trainers for clubs and schools in Europe, not to mention all non-certified aircraft.
The statistic sais in principle one thing clearly:
certified GA is dead and what is left is just a very tiny business which is insignificant.
Even Cirrus with 170 or so planes are a far cry from what they were pre-2008. The traditional companies are all dead and just keep a minimal output going.
The reason for me is perfectly clear. SEP GA planes are overpriced by a factor of between 5 to 10. GA has completely lost the connection to the common man who used to afford himself an airplane in the 1960ties and 70ties off the factory. Today’s common people buy 50 year old 2nd hand machines, as there is nothing they can afford in the new market.
It’s pretty much a chicken and egg thing: Prices are too high to warrant large output to distribute the massive costs of upkeep and development over a large number of planes. To do that, prices have to fall massively. Both is impossible.
The way things look, all traditional makes which are not spoon fed by a larger international company with money to spare will disappear.
In Europe, i reckon we are the last generation to see this kind of GA. Maybe something new will come along one day or our old airplanes will have to be kept alive until you can’t anymore and that is the end of it.
Personally, I am glad I won’t be here to see where all this is headed. But the GA enemies all over will in the end win, that much is sure. And GA itself will be to be blamed for most of it.
