Cessna-Columbia Deal Confirmed

[rracer10]

Looks like the rumors are now a fact. Dale Klapmeier at Cirrus seems to think
it will be good for GA. Time will tell. This will finally give Cessna the foot
in the door for a composite X-country cruiser. Rumor also has it that's why
they didn't pursue the Next Gen model that previewed last year at Oshkosh.

Link to article: http://www.avweb.com/eletter/archive...ll.html#196211

[Mike S]

A competitor says the merger is a good thing????????

What am I missing here????

[N941WR]

Does this mean that Cessna has finally admitted that low wings are better?

Seriously, good for them. It should help the Columbia design survive and will bring Cessna forward a few decades in the manufacturing arena.

I had hoped Cessna would buy the certification rights to the RV-10 and put it into production.

[java]

Good or bad yet to be seen...

If they got in cheap enough, Cessna could chose to let Columbia designs die a slow death, and steadfastly stick to their tried and true with one less competitor to challenge them... but that probably would do Cirrus more good than Cessna.

Most likely this will let them compete with Cirrus and Diamond in certain markets (which arguably they aren't doing that well, product wise, right now). Their deeper pockets and greater service/distribution network could prove quite formidable with a more modern product. If this moves along aviation development, good. If it kills or marginalizes Cirrus or Diamond (over time)... not so good.

Say what you want about their planes, but they seem to have a better business model. All you have to do is look at the flightline of most flying schools to see their market. Not a lot of SR22's being used for primary training, and that's a whole lot of flying hours (and parts...) to be accounted for. This acquisition makes sense for them, in that it opens up new markets for them (i.e. high performance single pistons), probably much cheaper than developing a new product directly.

[FlyJeffJ]

Yeah, competition is funny. Cirrus doesn't see other aircraft as competition, they see them as a kind of partner and we're all trying to get more people involved in aviation. Cessna is a large, beaurocratic organization and Cirrus is faster to change to meet the markets. They each have their niche, but I'm sure Mooney is more worried than Cessna.

[frankh]

Columbia's will now all weigh 8000lbs to match the performance of the rest of Cessna's single piston offerings.

Oooh...The laywer says...You mean it won't survive a 20G landing..Best strengthen that then...Oh..its so heavy it needs bigger wings..Hmm Still a bit fast, How about an 0320 in there?...

There we are a nice SFAE and lawsuit friendly airplane...That no one wants to buy....

Frank

[gmcjetpilot]

Lancair = Columbia
Cirrus = SR20/SR22
Where talking Lancair's Columbia certified plane division right?

How was Columbia doing? They where bankrupt right? I suspect it was survival and a fire sale. Could see it coming. They laid off folks. Did not sell many planes. Columbia only had a little over 300 registered planes. Cirrus has about 3000 registered. Columbia had that unfortunate hail storm, which damaged a bunch of new undelivered planes. Can you imagine repairing composite skin / honeycomb core all over from hail damage. I felt bad for them when I heard that.

Aviation is a tough biz. Buying Cessna was probably chump change to Cessna, who likely makes more selling one Citation-X than Columbia cleared their entire history. I'm waiting to see when Cessna out-sources construction to India or China, watch. I feel bad for the Lancair folks. Hope they stay in bizz.

Personally I can't see spending $390,000 to +$615,000 (top-O-line) that does not do much more than a RV, which cost a whole boat load less. It's just a single engine piston plane. You're getting into the used turbo-prop price range. A new VLJ bizz jet is $1.2M with way more capability.

That would suck if Cessna made the Columbia an orphan.

[Paul Thomas]

It was a Cirrus that Liddle flew into a building, I think it was a 2003 SR20.

[n5lp]

Originally Posted by gmcjetpilot

How was Columbia/Cirrus doing? ...
Didn't the estate of the baseball player that flew into the NY high-rise sue them. ...

Columbia/Cirrus? Two different companies George. I guess maybe you feel one glass plane is equivalent to another? The "baseball player" was flying a Cirrus.

[gmcjetpilot]

Originally Posted by n5lp

Columbia/Cirrus? Two different companies George. I guess maybe you feel one glass plane is equivalent to another? The "baseball player" was flying a Cirrus.

Yes I know, just making it clear, since Cirrus was mentioned in other context. I wounder what Cirrus did right or at least a little better? Is their production cheaper. Are the Lancair's labor intensive to build, since it was an out growth of their kits, where Cirrus was a clean sheet plane with production in mind? Was it the safety recovery chute Cirrus promoted that sold more planes? Better sales and advertisement?

Originally Posted by Paul Thomas

It was a Cirrus that Liddle flew into a building, I think it was a 2003 SR20.

Yep that's right, it was a Cirrus. It was not liability, at least totally, the bankrupted Columbia, it was lack of sales. I actually retracted my comment about liability, since its not really relevant. Columbia's only has like 2.5% accident rate verses fleet. Cirrus is 2.9% verses fleet, which is 10 times larger. It's not directly a liability issue, but Liddle and CFI (in a Cirrus as you say) messed up. Their survivors sued, which is a factor in any aviation bizz. Even if Lancair did not get sued, investors look at that and pass on investment because of potential liability.