Thought of MT when I read this article:

https://bjtonline.com/business-jet-news ... d=35186984

And MC, and MH, and the young guys on YouTube.

They really are quite interesting; the whole 500/550/560 line. You can knock them if you want, but Cessna really nailed the market with them.

That article was interesting. I had not thought of it before, but it really did kill all the twin turboprop market. The King Air soldiers on, but for most buyers the Citation makes more sense.

WAHAHA!! We bought out most of the entire US Customs fleet awhile back, over 10 of them. We murdered them all given they're impossible to put back into any sort of executive configuration.

But yes, the 550 is a wonderful machine!

Mike

You are a gentleman and a scholar my friend. Love that whenever I need something I can call you up and the yellow tagged part arrives a few days later. Thanks for salvaging the birds that are too far gone and stockpiling the remaining parts to keep us in the air!

I wish they (YouTube personalities) wouldn’t showcase the benefits of all these planes and drive the market up. Pretty soon a 501 will be 1.1 mil and a Meridian will be 3.

WAHAHA!! We bought out most of the entire US Customs fleet awhile back, over 10 of them. We murdered them all given they're impossible to put back into any sort of executive configuration.

But yes, the 550 is a wonderful machine!

Mike

It is an organ donor. Someone will buy it for that.

This is one reason the legacy series can be inexpensive to maintain, a fairly steady supply of used parts out there.

The low hull values means when accidents occur, the plane is more likely to be totaled, and then you get more parts in the supply chain.

A fairly new airplane doesn't have this supply, and fewer of them get totaled due to high hull values.

Its good to own an airplane with a large ecosystem around it. Gives one choices.

Mike C.

Bastard 550s, 2 air cycle machines; one plumbed to radar to cool F-16 radar, giant camera hole. They don’t usually pressurize very well., they have all sorts of weird avionics, the gyros usually don’t work, but yes, they are still in standard category. They usually have had excellent maintenance.

That supply will dwindle to zero at some point and probably faster than most think, then what? Does Textron hang on to the old tooling machines for legacy planes and do they ever spin them up when someone needs a part? Have they sold off machines to other companies to take over production?

The flip side is having a plane still in production with tooling machines still running every day. 525s, Phenoms, SF50, PC24, well, I guess that's all that has survived the single pilot market thus far. The downside from buying direct - $$$ even though they are still in production and even with parts programs, the prices are still crazy and drive monthly costs up.

Chip-

Supply of parts is never dwindling to zero on Legacy Citations. I think there are enough parts to last the next hundred years for these airplanes. I would be much more worried about them stopping making the phenom 100 than supporting a legacy Citation.

Lots of them out there. It will take a very long while.


A surprising number of parts are shared between a 510 and a CJ3. So yes, Textron hangs onto the "old" tooling because, in some cases, it is on new production planes.

This is one reason Textron stopped making Mustangs. They were a new clean sheet design which shared almost noting with the rest of the Citations so it was complex to keep spares. And, guess what, Mustang owners have a hard time finding parts (can you say "intercooler"?) despite being pretty recent when no legacy owner is suffering the same issue.

Mike C.

The math disagrees. Unless new parts are being produced it takes a plane to keep a plane airworthy. You’re losing tails 2:1. Plane A needs parts from plane B to make it airworthy. Plane A is now airworthy, Plane B is not. Plane C is now needed to keep Plane A airworthy when any part Plane A took from Plane B needs replacement. You’re losing tails 3:1.

Are there parts suppliers entering the market to produce needed parts? Seems like there will be some good demand for high occurrence items.

Stopping the Phenom 100 line? I’m mechanically inclined but I don’t think you’d want me working on jets!

Chip-

That's not true.

A single salvage airplane can keep many dozens of airplanes operating since they don't all need the same part.

Any part they all need is in high demand and those kind of parts are still being produced. Examples are batteries, tires, filters, lights, deice boots, windows, etc.

Mike C.

And they realized they could sell the same amount of M2s for twice the price. Hard to want to continue building the Mustang with its unique parts.

Maybe a dumb question but is there an age cutoff for Cessna’s parts program? I know the Mustang is still available, are the people who are waiting on intercoolers not on the parts program?

Chip-

And if 2 or 3 or 4 of those dozen do need the same part? Does the aftermarket have enough demand yet to be reproducing parts? And do they need Cessna’s blessing or does it not matter yet since donor planes are still so plentiful?

Chip-