This thread makes me grateful that I built an Experimental Aircraft.

Last I looked it was $12,000 in 2008

I have an A36 now. The Mirage was a lovely plane but we took it to Skytech in Rockhill SC for maintenance and annuals and it was 20K +

My IA priced a new landing gear nose brace from Beech for my H35 a few years ago. The quote was something like $53,000.

Two theories:

1-Some of the parts are zero stock. The cost reflects retooling and the cost to manufacture one part.

2- If an aircraft is damaged, an insurance claim will total the aircraft due to parts costs. This may help reduce the possibility of product liability lawsuits generated from older aircraft failures.



Ron Carns

SWMBO

Nah, given the choice that would probably be in a turbine

That is based on factual evidence at least in my world

Two completely different sides to a coin. Del is installing new wheel pants on my 180. The wheel pants from Knots2U were about $2100. The metal brackets, rectangular pieces of flat metal with some holes drilled in them from Cessna were going to be over $3,000. He found some surplus. They could easily be fabricated for less than $100.

Want to hear something even stranger than some of the above posts/prices.

Parts prices and availability for my 1952 Cessna 195 won't even raise an eyebrow. I can get almost any part on the airplane in less than 72 hours.

One of the easiest airplanes to maintain I have ever owned. I'm having a "new" Jacobs engine being built up for me now: $30,000.

Jg

You assume Textron cares. They don't. The last time any of these companies may have cared about GA was before they got bought out by conglomerates in the 70's.

Both Cessna and Beech were purchased by General Dynamics and Raytheon, respectively, because of their lucrative military contracts. As is typical in cases like this, they were purchased to gain access to ONE product or contract line. The rest was foam.

Piper went down a different path, but the result was the same. Multiple corporate overlords, all looking to make their 10% on the deal.

The only way this gets remotely fixed is if the FAA starts handing out PMAs like treats during Halloween or if the certificates get sold off. Sold off aviation IP has a bad track record if history is any indicator...both the Commander and Tiger projects started and failed, despite promising sales at the start. Heck the Tiger was back in production at least a couple of times, and the Cougar line is lost because the documentation and tooling was left unsecured.

You need to be a niche operator for that to work, like American Champion or Waco, but even Waco was just sold. Some places can make it work, like Univair.

Between 1960 and 2019, the economics of small airplane manufacture changed, at least for the "big 3". Either something got wildly skewed or the companies were never that profitable to begin with (and were essentially "labors of love") and "real" accounting took over or some other factor came into play.

I'd love to see the breakdown on the cost accounting of, say, the manufacture of a 1965 172. Throw in some inflation and see what it should really cost today. At that point you could start tracing the math.

Best,
Rich

Rich,

My dad bought our first airplane, a 1960 Cessna 172 N7552T, for the grand sum of $10,600.
Last time I checked, she was still flying.

Jg

I hope it’s not the $8,000 aircraft epoxy! Where’s the green font when I need it

Lower torque link for nose gear on an older Cessna 172, $8300 from Textron.

IO-550 engine $50k installed.

There's some things that just make ZERO sense...Cessna brake master cylinders for example. It's a small aluminum housing with a shaft, spring and seals and that's about it. Common across some of the singles and light twins...and they're $7500 EACH. That's $15K to put a pair of brake cylinders in your Cardinal or 210.

Oddly enough they're only about $1K each for a 421C. Go figure.

At that price I'd say it include the capital cost of purchasing the milling machine needed to form the part.

They can’t price the part for less than they charge the government.....

We are screwed.

Peace,
Don

Wait till that $30k heated windshield fails inspection