https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/textron-pauses-orders-for-bonanzas-barons/
When someone would ask me what factory new “certified” would I buy, Bonanza was my answer
This is really sad to hear, I hope they don’t kill the production line completely. There really isn’t any piston engine aircraft in production that can compete with a baron. :’( (a piper Malibu is the closest thing I can think of (performance wise)). After piper killing the Seneca pfff.
I wonder what kind of market we’re heading towards…
Until further, sad new indeed. I was lucky to do about 40 hours of my basic flight training on BE33s and later on flew the A36s a bit. If I had the cash and was on the market for an SEP – this would beyond any doubt be my choice of aircraft. What a legendary aircraft!
Eagle20 wrote:
I hope they don’t kill the production line completely
Read the article. They are producing 5 aircraft per year. That’s no production line in any sense of the word, not even in aviation. There’s nothing in the world of aviation that points to an increase of those sales. On the contrary, everything points to the opposite. I bet the production of those aircraft today lies heavily on the shoulders of one single person at Textron, an old geezer of an engineer that knows these aircraft inside out. He is probably retiring, and there is no way to justify “educating” a single person producing these old, but very complicated things, instead of new jets that will benefit the company 100 times more.
What we heard in the EBS chat is that Textron stopped taking orders, as at the current (slow) production rate it will take them until 2027-2028 to ship the currently ordered aircraft. But yes, it is sad :(
For me too, an A36 is a dream airplane. But I would have to play the lottery everyday 
Probably one guy retires in 2028 and they make a smooth stop.
That’s good planning btw. Often times, when a guy retires as planned years in advance, his replacement only gets in months after he left 
I looked at the A36 when I was looking to buy in 2001. It was a big plane and expensive; more than 2x the TB20 price. Also significantly difficult to work on (everything under the cowling is packed in). It attracted a fairly specific customer even back then. Build quality was good.
The twin avgas piston business was almost dead in 2001…
The Baron in Europe suffers because it’s above 2tons – Eurocontrol taxes. That excludes it for most GA owners. In the US, there are cheaper trainers for the schools and it’s anyway rather a travel plane than a trainer.
I can however understand that the Bonnie in this configuration will not attract much orders, as it’s missing the BRS which many people today see as a must have. On the other hand, none of the 6 seaters have it short of the Cirrus Vision Jet.
And generally, prices for new airplanes in the SEP and MEP class are simply insane. As long as it’s like this, I don’t see much activity on that market other than by flight schools who need certified airplanes and by very few single buyers. Seeing the build quality of the Bonanzas I wonder if they actually make a profit on it, Mooney for instance had similar figures when they shut down manufacturing for the Acclaim Ultra but lost money on every airplane. The low numbers that those planes generate make them simply not viable and expensive, which is why nobody buys them.
Apart, there is a huge used plane market where you can find both Bonnies and Barons in good shape for much less. So the market for new planes does no longer really exist, as long as the old ones are still being supported via parts.
Even if there had been a way to get a BRS certified in the retractable gear G36… if they had done it, I think it would not have changed much to the numbers of G36s sold. It would also have been another 50 kgs heavier…
Also, with a repack now 20-25k every ten years, it‘s starting to become deterrent for potential owners.
Not surprising. When the GAMA report came out the other day mentioning they sold one of each for the whole of 2023, I did wonder how long they’d keep that gig going.
