wrote:
Now here is a question I have. How come Cessna says that they can't
build the Skycatcher profitably in the USA and meet the price point
they set but yet AMD is able to build their ZODIAC in the states and
advertise an IFR variant for under 100k. It's not like the aircraft
are all that different. Both are made of aluminum and both have the
O-200. Cessna's logic just dosen't make much sense to me.

My theory:

When Chris Heinz designed his first aircraft, he designed it so that _he_
(a non-machinist) would be able to build it on his own. All other
requirements were secondary to the "easy manufacturability" requirement. No
doubt he maintained that principle in subsequent designs.

By contrast, the designers of the Skycatcher almost certainly didn't have
"easy manufacturability" as their primary requirement. Probably way down
the list. Assuming the Skycatcher uses solid rivets (first invented back in
the Bronze age), that already causes a labor cost disadvantage over the
blind rivets used in Chris Heinz designs.