Sheikhs were worse by far. In this sense the level of "americanness" of Cirrus is not changing one iota and I marvel at the commentary upthread.

I guess this means you'll be able to get Cirrus parts at Harbor Freight.

Oh, come on... Who order Cirrus #22 Beef & Broccoli?


Just kidding... Let's just hope it goes better than the Taiwanese lock company that bought Tiger Aircraft and Sino Swearingen. I saw that deal first hand and the writing was on the wall from the beginning...

I think that the Chinese have too many American dollars and are starting to become very concerned about the stability of the currency. What better way to spend American dollars than to buy American assets?

Lawrence is right.

Because of a grossly skewed balance of trade, the Chinese are sitting on a whole pile full of dollars.

They can either sit on them and watch them devalue as must happen with Fedo-flation rampant, or they can spend the dollars to acquire things that have value.

The railroad train runs west-east from the port of LA eastbound, and runs past my airport. All I see is sea-land containers headed east full, and going back west empty. And they are all bound to/from China.

The Chinese don't need a military anymore. Instead they sell us cheap crap, and use the proceeds to buy America.

I can't imagine that they bought Cirrus to sell a few dozen airplanes in the US. They must be thinking about the home market.

Not exactly on topic, but about China and GA.

Saturday night in Sacramento I had a short conversation with a guy who is putting a Netjets-type operation into China. He said that until recently, GA was so restricted it took two weeks to get a flight plan approved. Now it takes two hours.

He held a meeting to sell positions/shares (whatever) for corporate jets. About 2.5 million bucks each. Hoping to get two or three to sign up. He got more than a dozen, and a couple of the people asked how much the jets cost. About $40M, he told them. "Can you get that for me?" was the response.

Very interesting.

I see it the same as gay marriage: Let them be as miserable and broke as the rest of us

General aviation with small planes is not profitable. The chinese investors will find that out soon enough. Luckily they didn't buy any of the innovative providers in that market (it's the same as when Mercedes bought Chrysler).

Michael, you win the witty post award for the year so far.

In the automobile segment, the Chinese are mediocre imitators and poor innovators. That's why GM was able to set up shop in China and kick ass. Our products over there are very premium compared to Chinese expectations. Furthermore, they don't yet identify with our safety and environmental ideals; they don't make sense to them. They might eventually figure it out, but it will take a big paradigm shift for it to happen.

The same issues could be true for aviation in China as well.

Everyone commenting thus far seems to assume that the Chinese can't build a quality airplane. Just a quick search on Wikipedia will show that the Chinese have been building planes (mostly military and under license) for decades, and more importantly, they are using their state central planning tools to achieve economies of scale and to eliminate redundancies.

Aircraft manufacturing seems to have almost always been led by government. Whether it was our own planned economy during WWII as part of the War Production Board (gosh we produced a lot of planes), the subsequent Cold War Military Industrial Complex, or the more current government subsidy wars, a la Boeing, Airbus, Bombardier or Embraer, nothing big happens without a lot of government involvement and/or support.

Of course general aviation gets little in the way of direct subsidies. Beechcraft, Cessna and no doubt other GA manufacturers have been propped up from time-to-time by large military contracts.

My point is whether we like it or not, a thriving aircraft manufacturing industry has always been dependent on government planning, procurement and subsidies whether in the form of loans, artificially low currencies, wages or government orders. Independent manufacturers really don't have much of a chance, as the economies of scale are unlikely to ever return to make Part 23 GA aircraft a truly profitable endeavor in the USA. If our government is not prepared to support GA as a strategic resource, we might as well let folks with deeper pockets, lower costs and longer term visions take a shot. Before long, the only GA aircraft built in the USA will be homebuilt kits and experimentals. Now talk about low labor costs!!!!

I think it may be time read again this year-
The Art of War, SunTzu.
The thought process of conquering contained in the book may be applicable here.
Chuck Cook

From AOPA eBrief:

Government to review proposed deal between Cirrus, Chinese company

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment plans to review a proposed deal between Cirrus Aircraft and a Chinese company. Cirrus CEO Brent Wouters said the two companies asked for a review of the agreement as a pre-emptive move. The terms of the deal with China Aviation Industry General Aircraft were not disclosed.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/news/ChinaCirrusDealFacesSecurityReview_204233-1.html

Looks like this thing isn't over yet:

http://www.aopa.org/aircraft/articles/2 ... c_sect=gan

Anyone interested in investing??????

My concern about the Chineese isn't their ability and/or lack of it. They have been caught in the past with counterfit airplane parts (i.e. Boeing aftermarket) of lesser quailty and are known to be loose on enforcement.

I want to know there is a lot of intregrity supporting anything I fly.