Cessna's new LSA: "Skycatcher"

On Jul 22, 4:42 pm, Jim Logajan wrote:
For those who haven't seen this, Cessna has provided lots more detail on
its LSA entry:

http://www.cessnaskycatcher.com/

Fancy brochu

http://www.cessnaskycatcher.com/imag...ni_bro_web.pdf

Order form with pricing (for first 1000):

http://www.cessnaskycatcher.com/imag...final_0721.pdf

I'm sorry, but SkyCatcher?? I think they should have just stuck with
Cessna 162 and left it at that.

The Tecnam Bravo is very comparable to the 162. It is all aluminum,
but it weighs 100 pounds less (which under LSA rules means it has 100
pounds more useful load) and it doesn't need wing struts. It also has
a base price of $95,000 rather than the $111,000 Cessna is going to
ask. The Flight Design CT weighs a full 170 pounds less, also does
away with the wing strut, has a wider cabin, and costs about the same
as the Tecnam. There are a number of other LSAs out there which
compare favorably to the Cessna and cost quite a bit less. I think if
a small, relatively unknown company had brought an airplane like the
162 to the market, there would have been a resounding thud. But
Cessna is to airplanes what IBM used to be to computers, and maybe
they can get away with charging a premium to get the name Cessna on
the side of the plane.

I think this situation is similar to the time when IBM introduced
their first personal computer. It legitimized the concept of the
personal computer. In the long run, though, IBM withdrew from the
manufacture of personal computers because they just could not compete
with the likes of Dell. Time will tell whether or not a large company
like Cessna can compete with the many smaller companies that have
entered the LSA market.