1978 Duke 300 SMOH both sides (good shop) and recently done, 3 year old paint, 3 year old leather interior, rebuilt autopilot, winglets, extended fuel, NDH, $60k. Needed $40k spent on the panel to make it pristine. So, $100k for a beautiful low time Duke with modern panel

Bought many Colemill Barons with low to mid time engines for under $100k and an extremely nice 58P with a 100 hour engine and 1000 hour engine for $100k with good avionics. All these planes had full de-ice and radar as well.

Plenty of twins out there for sale and there will be more. More people are flocking to experimentals and plastic planes with parachutes.

No, but I will sell you one

I missed the "Army" Tbone by $5k. That one was modern and nice, just needed some housekeeping. REALLY nice twins still bring good money, but they better be the latest version with all the goodies and look brand new. A local business man just spent $1.5M upgrading his C90B. It has new engines with every Raiseback option, G1000, custom interior, etc. He doesn't care about the cost. It sets next to his 2013 Citation Excel. Some people don't care about the cost.

If I find a really great deal on a 58 I'll bite. But I like doing the work to it. It's fun

Old piston twins will be very welcome at airshows and fly-ins. And anywhere else men want to be seen as being men.

I don' t think drones need an airport to take off & land from, unless you're talking about a large drone, military style.
I will never get on an airplane of any kind that is not flown by a human being. I doubt many people ever would.

Good luck with the "GA explosion", I wonder where the money would come from to fund it? Middle class family wants to fly; "sure, go to the airport, it's free". (Oh yeah, money doesn't count, just like how we need to "invest in infrastructure")

Turn on a rap video.

Check out Instagram and FB.

Everyone wants their own airplane. It sells itself. It's good to want things. Makes you work harder.

Gulfstream is GA. Not sure how many times I have to say it. Are you concerned about GA or are you concerned about Pistons?

I think he was joking the rappers who's only thought about aviation is that Soulja Boy has a G-V and so they should have one too.

If it was only that easy. All of the engine companies work hard to reduce costs, but we also want the engines to perform better use less fuel, last longer, etc. Lots of expensive materials, expensive manufacturing.

Adam, this is awesome. The Air Force Labs have been rekindled interest in nuclear power. A result of our pivot to Asia, long ranges and high speed required. Most likely for unmanned aircraft though.

I just don't buy it. With todays 5-axis CNC machinery, I can't see a turbine have to cost any more than a piston. It's got a lot fewer parts and the tolerances this can be made to with CNC is staggering. Remember - when they were certified they had to be hand milled manually as there was no CNC then. Now a machine can churn them out 100 times faster and do them better.

Another example - I can buy aircraft grade certified turbo for about $3000. We can all agree that they are basically half of a turbine in construction. They both have a centrifugal compressor of about the same size, they both have bearings that need oiling and cooling. Sure the turbine has burner cans and an axial turbine stage, but that can't account for the $250K extra they charge for the thing. No way. Someone is making a lot of money along the way, that's all I'm saying. And as long a the military (which is yours and my money) is willing to pay any price for this stuff, there's no incentive from the old boys network to lower prices.

Adam, this is awesome. The Air Force Labs have been rekindled interest in nuclear power. A result of our pivot to Asia, long ranges and high speed required. Most likely for unmanned aircraft though.

I just don't buy it. With todays 5-axis CNC machinery, I can't see a turbine have to cost any more than a piston. It's got a lot fewer parts and the tolerances this can be made to with CNC is staggering. Remember - when they were certified they had to be hand milled manually as there was no CNC then. Now a machine can churn them out 100 times faster and do them better.

Another example - I can buy aircraft grade certified turbo for about $3000. We can all agree that they are basically half of a turbine in construction. They both have a centrifugal compressor of about the same size, they both have bearings that need oiling and cooling. Sure the turbine has burner cans and an axial turbine stage, but that can't account for the $250K extra they charge for the thing. No way. Someone is making a lot of money along the way, that's all I'm saying. And as long a the military (which is yours and my money) is willing to pay any price for this stuff, there's no incentive from the old boys network to lower prices.

Sounds like an opportunity to start an engine company.

I'd be interested in doing some work on such a project. The hot side is a bit more material critical on a turbine vice turbocharger. Higher temps.

I did build a functional jet out of a turbocharger in high school and worked at Pratt & Whitney in college. I have some engine experience. FYI, most turbine blades are cast, not milled. It's not the finish machining that's stupid expensive, it's the materials.

I don't think piston engine costs can be matched, but I think the piston to turbine delta can be dramatically reduced.