Fix the high cost [Was:] High Cost of Sportplanes

"Evan Carew" wrote:
Its even worth noting that should labor costs magically go
to zero, the cost of a commercially made aircraft would still
probably not go below 50K USD.

Airframe + avionics + engine + labor Insurance Profit
Overhead
kit basic 912 Magic
20000 + 4000 + 16000 + ( 0 * 45 ) +10000 + 10000 + 1000
= 61000


Woah there, overhead of mere $1,000/unit is not possible. At 100
units annually, pretty good if there's many competitors, that will
be only $100K. That's for manufacturing space and equipment,
warranty costs, legal, accounting, information tech, administrative
space, insurance other than product liability, taxes other than
income, phone, utilites, janitorial, etc., etc. And where's your
marketing costs? Advertising, promotional literature and videos,
and say $50K total cost for just one sales guy, who'll be one busy
beaver at 100 annual units. Figure $10K to go to AirVenture; wanna
go to all the others? And gotta demo plane?

Fred F.

Well said. A lot of people on this list have some idea what the
materials cost to build and airplane but they have no idea what it
takes to run a business. A lot of people have accused the LSA
manufacturers of price gouging and getting rich. My experience so far
in this business is that a lot of people are making money off of LSA
manufacturers.

Air show exhibit space sellers, promotional video producers, brochure
designers and printers, magazine advertising departments, logoed
clothing makers and the companies that sell the raw materials and
components for aircraft are the ones making all the money right now.
LSA manufacturers are spending much more than they are making at this
point (it is called investing for those of you in Rio Linda). At some
point, one hopes the income will exceed the outgo. Time will tell.

Rick Pellicciotti
LightSportFlying.com