New small Planes for Sale

IT'?S TOUCH-AND-GO FOR LITTLE PLANES.

Small airplanes still fill the sky over flying colleges, airfields and regional aerodromes on bright weekend sunshine. However, these reciprocating motor ships - referred to by professional drivers as "Putt-putts" or "Little Guys" - are on the brink of a steep descent. Its manufacturers - such as Beech, Cessna and Piper - have been stuttering themselves for five years.

Now, in the third party casualty squeeze, some companies are discontinuing the manufacture of many small model airplanes and instead stressing the more costly and profitably priced turbo-props and jetliners. The General Aerospace Industries, which manufacture aeroplanes for use outside the armed forces and air operations, have a number of issues.

However, it is an assault of destructive environmental claims, many of which affect reciprocating engines, that is the main barrier to viability, corporate leaders say. The costs of providing products have had a disastrous impact," said Drew Steketee, a spokesperson for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association in Washington. A number of production line products are discontinued.

'' Prizes are awarded by the panel of judges to producers for construction faults or faults that have led to an accident that has surged in the last ten years. During 1977, the sector payed a grand total of 24 million dollars in third party damages. Meanwhile, companies' premium rates have risen - seven-fold to $50 million a year, for example in Cessna - as output has fallen.

According to the manufacturers' federation, the current level of mean aircraft costs is more than $70,000 compared to $2,111 in 1972. Consequently, the parties can say that they can no longer produce a small aircraft that can face the oversupply of used aircraft on the merchantage. Today, a two-seater single-engine reciprocating machine with a double-seater is sold at a basic selling price of approximately 31,000 US dollars.

The cost of an equivalently used airplane is about half this amount. Reciprocating motor aeroplanes once made up the bulk of the large General aviation companies' work. More than 17,000 small reciprocating motor planes were delivered by industrial customers in 1978. Cessna, the world' s biggest general aircraft manufacturer, and Piper introduced both series slurries for most of their reciprocating engines at the beginning of the year.

They have also reduced their headcount. Reducing our liabilities, said Russell W. Meyer Jr., Cessna' s CEO and President, "will be the most important consideration as to whether we can restart our operations at any time in the near-term. Cessna and others in the sector are looking for this discharge in Congress, where they advocate legislation to restrict their cost of indemnity.

MEANWHILE, this year's output of all General Aviation airplanes, as well as those intended for commercial use, is projected to fall below 2,000 unit sales, the lowest since World War II and well below the 18,000 per year mark in the prime of the 1970s. Nevertheless, businesses rely on company jet and turboprop engines with higher prices and higher margin.

Deliveries of these aircraft have also fallen, but not so sharply. In the past year, some 466 commercial aircraft and turbo-props were delivered by General Aviation firms, up from 780 in 1978. Over the years, producers have developed new technology for these cars. We need to invigorate the industry by providing new product offerings that do not compete in the used market," said James S. Walsh, Beech Aircraft vice president during a recent Beech Aircraft Congress in Anaheim, California.

'' Damage was suffered by all three large General Airlines enterprises. Cessna, acquired by General Dynamics in 1985, had an aeroplane turnover of 443 million dollars last year, a decrease of 36 per cent compared to 1984. Beechcraft, also in Wichita and a Raytheon Company affiliate, saw revenues fall to $272.6 million last year from $619.7 million in its record year of 1981.

A spokesperson for Piper Aircraft, a Lear Siegler affiliate, did not publish any airplane revenue but said that the airline had seen a 90 per cent decline in revenue over the past six years and was not viable. Part of this is also a thrust in Congress for new legislation on liabilities. Pilot and owner have recently teamed up with General aviation vendors to endorse two legislation that would diminish corporate liabilities.

It' a little out of the ordinary because John L. Baker, Chairman of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, says that the civil responsibility issue is not what paralyzes the sector. He said this place was a small alcove. At the same moment, new reciprocating aircraft were fitted with 1940s technological motors.

'' Nevertheless, Mr. Baker supports the steps of the Congress businesses in a commitment to encouraging business to move into the reciprocating motor age. General aviation operators believe that they merit the protections that such laws would provide. Mr Steketee of the Confederation says that airframe manufacturers are susceptible to legal action because their planes last so long.

"Producers are assessed against the 1986 norms for aircraft manufactured in 1938," he said. Aircraft producers also complained that they often and wrongly assume the full costs of a third party damage because they use the juridical praxis of tap diving. In most cases, the manufacturer argues that pilots' mistakes were the main cause of an incident.

'' One particular turning point in history is that the security situation in General Aviation has improved while these laws have skyrocketed. A Labor Day crash where a Piper PA-28 crashed into an Aeromexico DC-9 when the airliner approached Los Angeles led to more than 70 fatalities and lively discussions about the security situation of General aviation airplanes.

However, it was only the 8th year since 1939 that a privately-owned airplane clashed with an airliner, and it was regarded as an abnormality for the sector. The National Transportation Security Board numbers show that 8 General Aircraft were used last year. However, the downside of the statistic reasoning is that although security is improved, the probability of suffering an air crash during a flight in a General Airline is 33x greater than in a passenger airliner.

According to the Road Traffic Security Bureau, the chances of death in an air crash in a small aircraft are 40-fold higher than in a commercially operated ship. Although airlines say they comply with and often exceed the Federal aviation administration's security standards, the Transport Security Boards claim that automakers are not doing everything they can to use current technologies to help minimize the number of casualties in accidents.

Although F.A.A.A. research has found ways to enhance crash safety, General Aviation vendors have not made efficient use of these insights. Groups such as the Consumer Federation of America and the Aviation Consumer Action Panels have argued that the sole stimulus that will compel producers to repair poorly engineered or faulty equipment is the threats of legal action.

We believe that the free trade will work much better than a legal solution," said Jack Gillis of the Consumer Bureau. However, even if their cost of tort is lowered, through alternate insurances or by laws, most general aviation corporations are steering towards several hard years to come. By the end of the year before the new Act comes into force, producers are expecting an increase in sales - and then a decrease.

The General aviation sector is already overcrowded with aircraftmakers. Fairchild Aircraft de San Antonio, Texas, Gulfstream Aerospace de Savannah, Géorgie. all of them making turbo-props and small jet engines. At STILL, the company has set its hope on a revival of the corporate aircraft sector. Bech Aircraft is aiming for its Starship aircraft certificate, an elegant turbo prop in which it has spent more than three years and $250 million.

Mr. Walsh, Beech's CEO, says the spacecraft is promising to be quicker, more efficient and more secure than today's aircraft. Company sentiment towards the planned busi-ness segment of the economy has led some firms in the sector to be sceptical. They whistle past the cemetery," said Mr. Baker of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

If, while the business cycle has been speeding up recently, businesses have not been able to return, now that the cycle is decelerating, how could they have expected to return? According to Mr. Walsh of Beech, it's the industry's best expectation at this point. Bringing new technologies into aircraft is the most important individual driver that will help our sector emerge from the current financial crisis.