As this is being written the stock market is in record territory, aircraft insurance rates are at record lows, the Fed has just started to raise interest rates out of the basement, the economy is at full employment and the incoming administration is promising to cut taxes while spending massive amounts on economic stimulus. Is this a great time to finance an airplane or what?
When the Astore was rolled out at the European Aero show in 2013, we didnt pay much attention to either the price or the market intent. It looked like just another LSA in a swarm of LSAs. But while we werent looking, the Astore has become a best seller, at least for Tecnam, if not in the larger universe of light sport airplanes. Right out of the gate, the Astore-which means Goshawk in Italian-was to be pitched to the upper tier of the light sport spectrum and it sure enough is, with upscale avionics and an interior as luxe as buyers might wish.
Its hard not to pass judgment on the health of the industry by what companies unveil at AirVenture. Still, as weve witnessed before, major manufacturers may show up with more new product announcements than we can cover in a week, but that doesnt mean the industry is rolling along fat, dumb and happy. This year, vendors did seem happy, and while many werent fat with record sales, everyone seemed to agree that the show simply had a positive vibe, perhaps signaling the stability weve been looking for in previous years.
The M600 uses the fuselage-with beef ups-and a higher-power version of the engine from the M500. The M600 also has a new wing-marketing claims its a clean-sheet design-that carries 90 gallons more fuel than the Meridian, allowing the M600 50 percent more range, a 958-pound higher gross weight and 100 more pounds in the cabin with full fuel. The M600 is also Pipers first airplane to use the sophisticated Garmin G3000 avionics suite.
If you were a dedicated Cub aficionado and wanted to build yourself the ultra version of the essential Cub idea, what would you do? Youd start with the basic planform, update it with edge-of-tech materials and build methods-carbon fiber, CNC-cut parts, modern avionics-all buttressed with an aerodynamic makeover to tweak performance. Then youd send the airplane to the place that designs and builds seats for Bentleys and Ferraris and tell them to go wild.
In my Mooney 252, I once took off from Atlanta, Georgia, right behind a Piper Aerostar 601P and landed right behind it in Washington, D.C. But, while I was using oxygen on the way there, he was flying in pressurized comfort. I bought an Aerostar. The last one was a factory-new model 700P. Flying above the clouds and being called a jet by ATC was always a kick. In the DA62, it seems to me that the kick has to come from the smell of leather. Im just saying.
Electric aircraft will get bigger in 2016, but probably no more accessible. Its not for lack of trying. Above and below the surface, there’s semi-furious developmental work to bring electric airplanes to market, driven by a mix of a parallel market push in the automotive world, a war on noise and emissions, demand for drones and the faint outlines of an energy transition away from oil and toward electricity for everything.
Perhaps one reason for the 182 Skylanes longevity is that it has good hauling capability, good dispatch reliability, a relatively comfortable cabin and maintenance shops know how to work on it. Except for its intolerance for mismanagement on and around the runway-giving it an awful ranking in the NTSB reports-we suspect buyers are comfortable with long-term Skylane ownership. For many, its as far up the pecking order as theyll go in their flying careers. These days, you can buy a 182 with a full G1000 glass panel and a luxe interior for a price in the high $300Ks. A big investment, to be sure, but far less money (and far less speed) than a new Cirrus SR22, as one example.
Affordable, high-performance piston single aircraft: we found one. The Maule family business has always produced taildagger STOL airplanes of utilitarian quality. This one runs autogas, and it features steel tube fuselage, rustproofing, dual-caliper disc brakes, and has great over-the-nose visibility.
Modifying airplanes that the original manufacturer got almost right has been a constant in general aviation. But lately, we call it something different: remanufacturing. And if any company is the Alpha dog of this process, its Cleveland-based Nextant Aerospace, which has had impressive success remanufacturing Beechjet 400As. Now its poised to repeat the trick with the popular King Air C90 series.
If Pratt & Whitney doesnt quite own the low- and mid-power turboprop market, it at least has a long-term lease at rent-controlled prices. GE Aviation plans to challenge that primacy and the instrument of their run at PW will be the H-series engines of the sort Nextant is using. GE is the giant in transport-category turbofan engines and in a tiny little Czech Republic company, Walter Aircraft Engines, it found a contender. Walter began life in…
Cirrus, Mooney and Cessna offer factory certified pre-owned aircraft as alternatives to buying new models. This is attracting attention in a brisk and comparably priced refurbishment market.Its an attention-getting and confidence-building strategy thats worked for years in the auto industry. To be sure, there’s at least some sharp marketing involved here. When the manufacturer provides a certificate of approval for maintenance history, cosmetic condition and prescribes a thorough engine and airframe inspection process, dealers tack on a premium thats roughly 10 percent more than a non-certified used model, in many cases.
