RIP Cirrus
"Gig 601XL Builder" wrDOTgiaconaATsuddenlink.net wrote in message
...
Matt W. Barrow wrote:
Except if it was built in Wichita, it would cost $200K and wouldn't
sell at that price. Those workers would then have to be laid off.
One might say American workers have priced themselves out of the
market.
One might say that. One might also say that Cessna failed to design an
aircraft that could be built in the US for $100k. Others have done it.
Others don't have Cessna's overhead or tax structures. Niether do they have
the capacity/scale.
I suspect their workforces are "different", as well.
If the name Skycatcher didn't have the name Cessna in front of it it would
be considered an over-weight, late comer to the market. And would probably
never see the sky.
It would for the same reasons Honda and Toyota and Datsun had a bit of a
hard time breaking into the US auto market.
Now we find out that it isn't, in fact, a Cessna because Cessna is
outsoucing it.
I was never going to buy a Skycatcher. I liked it because it brought a
certain ligitimacy to the LSA market that I hoped would bring some of the
oldline FBOs and instructors around to what I think is the last chance for
recreational flying.
Now those same old guys are going to be able to say, "That's not really a
Cessna. It's built in China."
And rightfully so. If Cessna decided to shift Columbia production to China
I'd never buy another one.
I was going to buy a couple Dell computers to replace a couple here that are
getting long in the tooth, but decided on another brand made in the US. I'll
buy from Taiwan, Mexico, even Indonesia...but not from China unless it's
bandages and I'm bleeding to death.
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