AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014 - 16

WAYPOINTS

High hopes

BY THOMAS B. HAINES
Editor in Chief

There's plenty of life left

EDITOR IN CHIEF

Thomas B. Haines
learned to fly in a
Cessna 150 and 152.
The first airplane he
owned was a 1977
172N.

THE HEADLINE ON THE PRESS release caught my eye for
two reasons: "Textron Aviation Independence facility
delivers 10,000th single-engine aircraft." One, 10,000
is a lot of airplanes. Two, the August 27, 2014, date
reminded me of what general aviation looked like 20
years earlier in August 1994 when President Clinton
signed the General Aviation Revitalization Act (GARA).
The Independence, Kansas, factory sprouted from
the prairie less than a year after the bill was signed, with
then-Cessna Chairman Russ Meyer breaking ground for
the facility on May 19, 1995, in front of more than 1,000
industry and government representatives, including
yours truly. By July 1996, the factory began churning out
172 Skyhawks and 182 Skylanes and later 206 Stationairs
as well. Although it wasn't delivered until February 1997,
the first 172 delivered was the AOPA 1995 sweepstakes
prize. The first new 182 was our 1996 sweepstakes prize,
making its way to its winner in 1997.
Construction of the Independence factory was a
direct result of GARA, with Meyer stating for years that
if product liability reform occurred, the company would
return to manufacturing piston airplanes; it had stopped
producing piston airplanes in 1986. Within days of the
bill being signed, Cessna announced plans to begin looking for a factory site, with several Kansas communities
competing for the prize that promised thousands of
jobs. By December, Independence community officials
learned that their town and its airport would become
home to the first Cessna factory outside of Wichita.
That first 172 out of the factory sported a fuelinjected 160-horsepower Lycoming engine, a new
cowling design, new crashworthy seats and seat rails,
a better ventilation system than previous Skyhawks,
and a panel full of the latest avionics gear from Bendix/
King, including a basic autopilot. The price: $124,500,
which Cessna claimed was slightly less than the last
one produced in 1986 when adjusted for inflation.
Adjusted for inflation through 2013, the Skyhawk
today should sell for about $180,000. However, today's
airplane comes with more power and much better avionics equipment. In 2014, a basic Skyhawk, typically
with a 180-horsepower engine and a highly integrated
Garmin G1000 cockpit and very capable autopilot, sells
for some $370,000; $435,000 if you want the 155-horsepower Continental CD-155 turbo diesel engine.
Today, that Independence factory produces
Skyhawks, the Turbo Skylane JT-A turbo diesel, the

16 | AOPA PILOT November 2014

Stationair, TTx, and two Citation jets-the Mustang
and the M2.
GARA accomplished a lot at a time when it seemed
as if the GA industry was about to implode. Cessna
returned to piston production; Piper emerged from a
four-year bankruptcy less than a year after the bill was
signed; Cirrus moved out of the kitbuilt industry and
began development of the SR20; Lancair expanded from
just being a kit company to also developing a production
airplane, which became the Columbia-and ultimately
the Cessna TTx.
While the GA future brightened in the later 1990s
with those new airplanes and the maturation of GPS
navigation and IFR GPS approaches, the sales figures
and rebound hoped for never materialized.
In an interview in the June 1995 issue of this magazine, Meyer reiterated a prediction he had made for the
previous couple of years that Cessna would build 2,000
single-engine airplanes a year. "I'll make a statement
that we will reach a level of 2,000 a year by 1998, and I
think that 2,000 per year will be the lowest level annually that we'll see for 25 years or more."
Later in the interview he continued, "Two thousand
airplanes will be our minimum by the year 2000. I can
see us building 3,000 a year comfortably."
The entire global GA industry did produce 2,750
piston airplanes in 2006, the highest number in recent
decades. However, the most Cessna produced was 912
in 2000. Global production of all piston airplanes topped
out at only 933 in 2013.
Many believe the manufacturers have priced themselves out of the market, which, with even most Light
Sport Aircraft topping $150,000, is probably true.
The good news is that there's still plenty of life left
in the existing fleet, aged as it may be. While the flow
from that 20-year-old Independence factory may have
slowed to a trickle, the flow of airplanes out of mod
shops and quality paint, interior, and avionics shops
seems on the upswing. As we've shown over the years in
our sweepstakes projects and now with our Reimagined
150/152 project, a refurbished airplane can fly on for
more decades, bringing pleasure, utility, and value to
new generations of pilots.
AOPA
EMAIL thomas.haines@aopa.org

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - November 2014

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