What I wanted Piper Ceo Bass to say...

John,

Because Thielert is totally dependent upon Mercedes to provide them with
engines.


That can't be it. For two reasons:

1. The thing that Diamond allegedly has in development is based on an
automotive engine, too. In fact, I once read an article by Thielert where
he makes the calculation for developing an aircraft piston engine from
scratch vs. based on a car engine - and there's just no way you can break
even if you start from scratch these days.

2. Mercedes's output is so high that even if they quit making an engine
Thielert needs, it would be no problem at all for them to buy 20 years
worth of supply right before Merc shuts the production line down. The car
manufacturing numbers just are that much bigger. Our market is tiny.


--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Thomas Borchert wrote:

2. Mercedes's output is so high that even if they quit making an engine
Thielert needs, it would be no problem at all for them to buy 20 years
worth of supply right before Merc shuts the production line down. The car
manufacturing numbers just are that much bigger. Our market is tiny.



In the old days people who lived and breathed aviation designed
and built engines (and aircraft) because it was in their DNA and
they owned most or all of the company. They made a fair profit,
built a lot of engines and airplanes that people could afford
and life was good.

Then over the years lawyers came along and started advertising
for lawsuits and caused a lot of these hard working aviation
businesses to go bankrupt in a single lawsuit over ae crash
which in all likelhood was caused by pilot error. They could make
millions in a few months off of of the decades of hard work of
these little aircraft companies.

After most of the blood was sucked away, (a day late and a dollar
short as usual) the government stepped in and passed a few laws
to prevent the last few drops from being sucked. The lawyers
had by then developed and perfected "IV" sucking devices for
a number of different industries that could still suck a lot
of blood, whil insurance companies sucked up the rest.

The result is the small innovative companies can not compete
in the marketplace because they just don't have the capital
to pay the insurance, taxes and all the other liabilities
that go with it and make enough profit to make it worth the effort.
If they do make a profit, the lawyers will be ready to suck it
all away when the first mishap occurs.