Smitty Two wrote:
In article ,
Richard Riley wrote:

How many pilots are there?

About 600,000 in the US.


How many drivers were there when Henry started building cars? My
contention, stated clearly in previous posts, is that price attracts
volume. The AOPA's Young Eagles program is designed to attract young

Quick correction, Young Eagles is an EAA program.

So what if it isn't a million? What if it's 50,000 new airplanes a year

There are just over 200,000 aircraft registered in the US, just under
150,000 of them are "piston single engine" (source: AOPA website
http://www.aopa.org/special/newsroom.../aircraft.html ). By the
way, about 20,000 are "experimental."

You're thinking growth, and I would very much like to see this market
segment grow, but look at the current stats. The 20,000 experimental
aircraft is a ballpark indication of the size of the current LSA
market _over the next several years combined_. Even with radical
growth driven brilliant marketing and great products, it will still
be a small market for several years.

Here is a problem no one has brought up yet in the automobile/
airplane analogy: Cars are usually replaced before they are about ten
years old. Light airplanes usually last much longer, so the
replacement cycle doesn't exist in the same way.

What was that efficiency expert's name who went to Japan after the Big
War to teach Japanese companies how to make quality products at
reasonable prices? He went there because the Americans were too arrogant
to think they needed him.

Dr. W. Edwards Deming.

I think everyone here is on the same page, that we'd like to see some
vision in the sportplane industry make it grow, but I think that is
still at least a few years away.