Here goes. I worked in the field of engineering for the Kennet Government and was privileged to interview a lot of engineering company owners. I have also worked in an airline and defence/aerospace.
We have ONE big problem and then a few little ones.
The GA 8 and the Nomad variant should be wildly successful. Our car industry should have been the same. The Holden two door Monaro was a knock out in the US as was the Holden based US Police car. The GA -8 follows a long tradition - the Avon Sabre and the Victa airtourer for example.
BUT we have this problem - its called the economics facility of ANU in Canberra.
Let me explain how it killed Australian manufacturing......
1. In Economics 101, budding economists learn about two things: Economy of scale and competitive advantage.
Economy of scale states that big production runs of a thing are cheaper because setup, tooling and design costs are spread over a larger amount of product. Therefore the unit cost is cheaper.
Competitive advantage states that it is cheaper to build product in some places rather than others. For example your costs are lower if you have cheap access to energy, raw materials people, markets or transport and distribution.
Good little economics students write essays about why the US car industry is in Detroit, why Britain was the natural place to develop the textile industry and Germany made guns and railway carriages. But wait! There has been progress in the 1960's they wrote about how Korea was the natural place for shipbuilding and Japan was a natural for cameras and electronics. The students also wrote essays in this same deterministic mindset about how Australian had no competitive advantage and got full marks if they parroted that we were destined to be a wool and wheat grower and a mine. Marks were deducted if they said anything that contradicted the theory of economy of scale or competitive advantage. There was some justification for that; industry protection after WWII had allowed manufacturers of virtually anything to rort the Byzantine tariff system we had, but however...
The Japanese invasion and destruction of the US car industry by little cars should have given the professors pause for thought, but it didn't.
So what did that mean for Australia?
Well, all those economics graduates went to work for Treasury and other Government Departments. They reformed the tariff system and threw open the doors to international competition.....great idea so far..... industry has to be internationally competitive...... sounds good, lots of Australian firms can't compete because they are fat and lazy and have no competitive advantage and no economy of scale. Economists can still sleep at night because the theory holds....
However there are a few that are left that still seem to be alive?????? WTF, Victa Airtourer? - an aircraft made HERE???? This can't be allowed to happen because it offends theory!!!!! GA 8* Airvan? Nomad ? Monaro? and, and, and THIS CANNOT BE RIGHT! THEORY SAYS THEY CAN'T BE COMPETITIVE! IF THEY SURVIVE WE MUST BE SUBSIDISING THEM IN SOME WAY! QUICK! PROTECT THEORY! BANKRUPT THESE UPSTARTS! WE ONLY DO WOOL, WHEAT, IRON ORE AND COAL!
..And that is what is happening even today because the economists are learning nineteenth century economics. The good professors have never heard of Kanban, CAD, CNC or the entire manufacturing movement to destroy economies of scale and make an EOQ of 1. They have never watched you tube and seen custom, personalised production of everything from bicycles to Porsches. They are still stuck with Henry Ford and Baton Rouge.
I was given a wonderful tour through Gipps. The GA* is a CAD design, CNC cut and matched drilled to higher precision then an F18 in the sheet metal area (GA8 stuff is interchangeable, F18 stuff has four cleco holes, then backdrill the rest Buddy). The GA8 can be economically made anywhere, it doesn't have to be in Los Angeles or Seattle. Same with everything else. there is little economy of scale and very little competitive advantage anywhere. The Mocassin wearing bogans of Moe make a good aeroplane. There is plenty of other good stuff designed or discovered here but will never be exploited because of Canberra (ask me about double cut plunge grinding of turbine blades).
However Canberra academics dont know that and will continue to suppress, resist enhancement of manufacturing capability or kill manufacturing in this country the best way they can.