Welcome additions to the market though these are, they have not substantially increased the volume of aircraft being manufactured or significantly spurred demand. Since then “there have been a number of new product introductions from legacy manufacturers and new players,” GAMA’s Hennig says. The resulting amendments to FAA Part 23 requirements went into affect in 2018. Starting in 2009, GAMA and other aviation organizations worked with the FAA to address some of the burden of certification leading to passage of the Small Airplane Revitalization Act of 2013 which sought to ensure that smaller recreational airplanes could be designed and certificated under less complex regulatory requirements than heavier, higher performance aircraft. While there have been some airframe and engine improvements to classic designs, most innovation has come with advances in navigation, communications and pilot-assistance avionics. A local flight instructor informed me that two of his students were pleased to be able to purchase a lightly used 1970s vintage Cessna 172 for about $120,000.Īircraft manufacturers frequently cite the cost and complexity of FAA certification as a reason for high retail costs and the relatively low degree of innovation in certified aircraft. Instead, their focus is on the used market. Such is the market that most of the pilots I spoke with are not even aware of new airplane sticker prices. Rattling off the new aircraft prices cited above to pilots and flight instructors at a small general aviation field like Lee Airport near Annapolis, Maryland, begets considerable eye-rolling and head-shaking. The ubiquitous Cessna 172 Skyhawk retailed for $12,500 in 1970. “The statute introduced in 1994 has helped but if you look at the statements that we’ve been public about in the past, 20% to 30% of the price of an aircraft is simply related to the manufacturer self-insuring against product liability. The General Aviation Revitalization Act of 1994, provided relief to GA manufacturers, limiting product liability for products 18 years old or older, but litigation has still had a severe impact, Hennig says. In the 1980s the industry was also ravaged by product liability lawsuits that crippled manufacturing and significantly drove up cost. Low volume means that light aircraft manufacturing remains a relatively labor-intensive, time consuming process without the automation, advanced tooling and economies of scale common which passenger-car manufacturing leverages. billing value of $23.5 billion and $20.0 billion for each year. According to GAMA, 1,324 and 1,312 piston aircraft were sold in 20 respectively.Īdd in business-owned and oriented turboprops and jets and total airplane shipments for 2019/2020 stood at 2,658 and 2,399 with a total U.S. was 1978, a year in which approximately 18,000 light single and twin-engine aircraft were sold. The high-water mark for sales of light aircraft in the U.S. Hennig points out that general aviation manufacturing is a low volume affair as well. Our manufacturers attempt to sell airplanes at the cost of manufacturing with a slim margin to enable future investment in the product.” “Aviation has never been a high margin industry. “We have certainly heard concerns about the price of a new aircraft,” says Jens Hennig, vice president of operations at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association ( GAMA). It’s not a new situation but is it one that manufacturers see as tenable long term? While there are a handful of mainstream manufacturers still churning out light general aviation aircraft and a variety of smaller boutique builders, their products are not within easy financial reach for most Americans.
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