Recently, Jay Honeck posted:
[...]
In his speech, Mr. Bass touted the fact that Piper had gone back to
its original name (no more "New Piper" nonsense), had returned to
profitability, and recovered from the three hurricanes that had
devastated their Vero Beach facilities. All good things, indeed, and
each announcement was met with enthusiastic applause.

What are they selling that has returned them to profitability?

[...]
Then Bass went on to spend half an hour trumpeting the new PiperJet,
which has supposedly already racked up 180 firm orders. With a whiz-
bang PowerPoint presentation, he went on to outline the features of
this $2+ million jet to a room full of Cherokee pilots -- all of whom
only wanted to hear about piston singles.

I hope the infusion of cash from Honda to build the PiperJet isn't being
called "profit". That would spell the end of the company in a very short
time.

[...]
God almighty, folks, as if the writing wasn't on the wall enough, this
fly-in has proved to me that our beloved GA is teetering at the abyss.
I looked around the ballroom, at all these gray-haired old guys
wearing brightly-colored, aviation themed Hawaiian shirts, and
realized that I was possibly witnessing the end of an era. Between
"User Fees" on one side, fuel costs on the other, and an aging pilot
community, I don't know anymore what to think or do.

Sure, you do. But, denial is a powerful thing. If someone can't spring for
a new $.5M piston single they'll be forced to either buy into a plane with
a very short operative lifetime due to a lack of replacement parts or fold
their tent. I hate to add to the gloom, but the picture has looked bleak
for a couple of years, now. The only hope is that LSA can fill in the gap
between reasonably priced used singles and new planes that are out of
reach for most GA pilots.

Neil