Statistics

After reading about Van's RV-12 first flight, I started wondering about how numbers of new RV's compare to certified General Aviation planes. After a little bit of internet research, I came up with the following:

From http://www.gama.aero/files/documents/2009ShipmentReport_1.pdf, the total piston single engine airplanes shipped worldwide during the first three quarters of 2009 is 627. That's about 70 per month.

Van's Hobbs meter currently stands at 6424. My internet searching indicates that the Hobbs meter clicked to 5000 in February of 2007. That's 1424 new RV's flying in the last 33 months, about 43 per month.

So unless I'm mistaken, there are currently about 6 RV's being finished for every 10 certified piston singles shipped anywhere in the world.

I also note that during the first three quarters of the 2009 Cessna has shipped 223 piston singles (25 per month) and Cirrus has shipped 189 airplanes (21 per month) - 46 per month for Cessna and Cirrus combined. So Van's 43 per month is just a bit less than the combined total of the two biggest manufacturers of certified piston single engine airplanes.

I find this impressive.

Statistics: Shipped vs Built

There is a slight turn of phase here as you mentioned Cessna and Cirrus shipped x number of aircraft vs Van's has an almost equal number built and flown. All is well and good. The interesting thing to me is Van's "shipped" a bunch more kits during that time period and I think Van's number is 40% of kits "shipped" end up built. This is in its self an amazing number as the average kit only has a 10% chance of being flown. In other words, Van's has a four times greater number of planes flying per kit received. Van's excellent technical assistance and Vans Air Force are a big part of that.

I wonder if we can get up to 50% of kits ordered to fly.

S S Anderson
Lafayette, La.
Flying RV 7A

I'm helping to increase that 40%. My RV-6 Emp kit was purchased in '91 and the wing kit in '93. As far as I can tell, I am the 4th owner (3rd builder). Hopefully 3rd builder will be the charm...