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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