Originally Posted by
rutan around
Well actually there is a close Australian equivalent to the C172 that does have some clever manufacturing advantages over traditional cessnas. eg two men making 5 sets of of wings in 5 days while next door 5 men worked 5 weeks to make a set of similar sized aluminium wings.
This Ozzie aircraft has a better useful load , a wider cockpit , and a lower fuel burn. It does all this with the same or better cruise speed and range of a C172.
It costs $130K - $140 K if built by the factory. Compare that price with $492 K plus freight for the American machine.
What plane is the Ozzie competitor?
A Jabiru of course. Before going ballistic and berating me on this forum look up the specs yourself for the Jabiru J450 and for the Newbuild C172.
OK, well, I'll concede that you did have me googling, not being terribly familiar with the Jabiru. Excellent troll, you got me.
Unless wikipedia has misled me, the factory built aircraft do not have standard airworthiness certificates, they are all 2 seat aircraft certificated in the LSA or Primary category.
The J450 you quote as the faster, further with more load and cheaper than the 172 is neither certified in *any* category, nor is it factory built. It's an amateur build kit. Sorry, comparing a kit to a certificated airplane is not an intelligent comparison. It has long been the case that some amateur built planes have been able to outperform certificated aircraft. The reasons for that are various, but it's pretty unlikely that the price is going to survive going through certification with a standard airworthiness certificate and paying the people assembling it.
Have you got an aircraft
certificated in the Normal Category which has a larger cabin than the C172, and can go further and faster with more load than the 172 on less fuel at half the purchase price?