I remember being this excited when Piper announced the PiperJet. Other than a few test flights it never happened. Hopefully Cessna is committed to this.

TBM has been offering their 5 year free maintenance program for the last couple of years. It makes their operating comparisons look a lot better. Even with free maintenance....the fuel, engine and landing gear reserves, insurance, etc. makes them $147,000/yr. for 200 hrs with an owner/operator (as quoted by TBM). Even with their maintenance special, 5 years X operating, plus $1,000,000 for depreciation, plus broker fee to get out, and add the cost of money, that makes the total out of pocket of over $2 million for the short, 5 year memory!

More range and payload over a Meridian = more HP. I seriously doubt they can hit a $2 mil price point and beat Piper's 500 HP. I suspect their price point isn't written in stone and it will creep up fast if it outpreforms a Meridian.

News like this gets sure gets us excited. By the 15th post, a TN Bonanza starts looking a little bit better!

They will probabbly end up with a PT6, but cannot say so until they are done negotiating price with Pratt.

Good point. By the time the FAA is done with them, many go broke rather than go into production.

Andy,

That answer is right on. If anyone does the math, it's a lot less expensive to charter for the four or five flights that are out of your Bonanza comfort range.

The other issue...when you have a couple of million $s to spend, there is a bunch of million dollar ideas (non-aviation) floating around. And....there's a good chance your better half has caught on to some of those other ideas too!

When you're looking at $2 million plus to buy, and another $150,000/yr of operating, it had better be a good business tool combined with tax incentives.

Rick

I agree, I can't even afford a Bonanza That's why I fly a Mooney.

As to charter, I think our tab this year for the skiing trip charter came up to be about 12K. Split between 6 people it was less than commercial flight Jackson Hole and we got to relax in a King Air.

Funny thing though, I'm a lucky man. My better half (all be it, "owned", not rented), if we had the $$$ to spend would love nothing more than a buy a Pilatus PC-12. I think she might change her mind when she sees the final bill for my recent overhaul of our TIO540 Lycoming. I already told her that it's small peanuts compared to running a PT6A but I haven't shown her the bill yet because I haven't gotten it yet myself

She's not a pilot her selfbut she's got the Garmin GNS all figured out. I almost never have to touch the radio when we fly, she just listens to ATC and does it all, including loading and activating approaches as well as operating the GMX200 to get me weather and stormscope views.

Keep in mind Piper derated the PT6A-42 substantially and they also utilize a full time bypass for inertial seperation (hence no ice doors). That engine is barely working. Compare that to the Malibu/Jetprop which uses a -35 and has much better potential payload/climb performance.

If Cessna was to use the -42 and create some pilot control, they could get a lot more performance than the meridian. However, at what tradeoff. Piper seemed to want to make an easy airplane to transition into with low workload and I think Cessna would want the same. Also, it is my understanding that the gross weight limitation on the meridians has to do with stall speeds and also empty weight and structural reinforcement. It gets harder and harder to do all of that when your airframe starts getting heavier and heavier. Trade-off/trade-off.

It would be nice to have some new competition though, although I will have to wait 10-15 years until they come down in price on the used market!

Here's a drawing of the potential Cessna:

THAT does not look like a Cessna!

Looks like a twin Comanche with one engine

Based on the drawing, it looks like composite, totally new airframe. Chance of it ever going into production at Cessna: 0%

That thing is hurting my eyes. where's the vomit emoticon?

It's something new for them and it is a step in the right direction. The way things are going.

They need someone like Lancair to figure it out first...then sell to them.

Heck, I thought the word was that they were just going to hang a turbine on the front of the mustang airframe. I agree that a clean sheet airplane will cuts the odds of this becoming reality by a big factor. Maybe if they buy the KA line from the Chinese, they could hang a 60 series Pratt on the nose of a C-90, that would work.