if you're going to make any money cater to movie stars and very wealthy, who else will buy them. i would have one if i won the lottery this is some great little toy.

gary

if nobody bought new airplanes anymore, then that would be the end of private aviation as we know it…

do not know, please correct me, but in the small single engine category, there are some small companies like Cubcrafters, Aviat etc, who cater to a niche market, either utility or a "dream" market with excellent products…they are successful…

and/or, let us take the Cirrus for instance companies who offer added value in their planes with new technology and uncommon new features, as perceived by the customers, which are are considered innovative enough for people to buy new..

the old established manufacturers seem to cook the same theme over and over again, and like Cessna may only stay in that market, to attract and keep customers for their more expensive offerings..

Cubcrafters and Aviat, just to name two examples seem to be able to turn in a small profit..

Textron seems to be losing on every single they sell, they just subsidize single production to be able to sell a turbine one day.. to that customer who started out with a C-182…

or maybe…Cubcrafter's XCub compared to it's greatgrandfather the Supercub, looks like High Tech…to me, at the cruising speed it goes, the wings would fall off of an old Cub…and it quite possibly is way safer at the very low speed end near the ground than a Supercub...

A 2016 C-182, as good an airplane as it is, save for new avionics and a Lyc iso a Conti is exactly the same airplane Cessna built in the 70's…same airspeed to the knot...( and what are new C-182s selling for..guess must be way north of 500K or 600K or so…in the meantime? and even at such a price Cessna, due the company's size and overhead and liability probably must subsidize even that price with another 100K for every copy they sell or so..that is just my guess..)

but sorry, I do not want to be boring, because I see myself repeating arguments, that have been traditionally repeated in these forums ad nauseam..

and there may be a message there…

small airplanes should probably be built by smaller companies…

bigger airplanes by bigger outfits..

let us face it, the days that an OEM like Cessna put out thousands of airplanes a year are over forever..

but, if we take those liability laws…lawyers are more inclined to go towards big targets like Textron..because Textron has got money..I am still amazed that under these conditions Textron still builds small planes..

with a small outfit building GA planes..who do the lawyers go to? may send a small outfit out of business, but nobody would get any money..for the "pennies" those law firms could squeeze out of a small biz, these lawyers dont even find it worthwhile to get up in the morning...

so "resizing" the airplane business may also help on this ridiculous liability laws front…and make new airplanes more affordable for more people…

so one could argue…"yes, small IS beautiful…in the small airplane business…"

This is how you roll out a new airplane. Build it, certify it, and have it available for immediate delivery. Unlike Icon and others that sell "positions" for airplanes that they never will build or if they do will never live up to the hype.

Congratulations to CubCrafters - agree with others who said "That's how to bring a plane to market." No pre-production hype, no "pre-sales", no "waiting list" - just build it, certify it, and THEN start selling it.

It's the first certified airplane I've seen that is a "true competitor" to the experimental I'm building - a Bearhawk Patrol. Similar <35 mph stall speed, >150 mph cruise speed, ~1000 lb useful load. The primary difference is that I'll spend three years building mine, and it will come out of the "factory" door for well under $100 grand. A good trade-off for this retired guy...

yes that approach really makes a refreshing difference…



https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/cubcrafters-secures-us-certification-for-xcub-426096/

Pia Bergqvist in FLYING on the new XCub..

http://www.flyingmag.com/cubcrafters-xcub-is-an-ideal-backcountry-machine

Sounds like Flying magazine liked it. Who could have guessed?