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"Richard Riley" wrote in message ... I know, let's get Porsche to get into the aircraft engine business! Didn't Mooney try that? |
#12
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"Denny" wrote in message oups.com... The manufacturers of certificated aircraft pay LyCon prices because the only alternative until very recently was an Allison or P&W turboprop at ten times the cost. I'm not sure any of the other supposedly certificated engines being talked of are 1) actually certificated in the U.S, and 2) actually shipping. The Zoche and DynaCam were thinly veiled efforts to pimp up some venture capital; neither had any real desire to produce engines. Homebuilders use these same engines because most homebuilders today just want to fly and are "building" as a dodge around type certification: most lack fabrication skills or any desire to experiment. Look at Richard Van Grunsven, who is making a lot of money on the RV kits. If people will pay those prices for sheet aluminum and assorted widgets why should he get his airplane certificated and tool up and manufacture them? His margins are as high as a certificated lightplane, he is making a lot of money with relatively little work. Relatively little work? Hmm, I'd call designing, tooling, and fabricating, and test flying 1 or 2 prototypes for each new aircraft significant. Add production tooling costs, build manuals, etc, and the development costs for each new type are probably surprising. Also, liability is probably a significant cost for someone like Van's. Add Van's customer support and the other benefits that come from their overhead (I'm sure they have 10x the staff of any other kit manufacturer) and their prices are a pretty good value. If the Lycoming or Continental engine were really more reliable than commodity general purpose engines, they'd be used in many other applications. They are 1930s designs that if not protected by certification would have been out of production for decades. General purpose production engines have been installed in aircraft, usually by people with a lack of resources in manufacturing and design, and yet flown pretty well. If a company like Mercury Marine chose to get involved in powerplants for experimental aircraft, they could put Lycoming out of that market segment in a couple of years. And, being good capitalists, why didn't they do that? Because the market is too small, the barriers to certification too high, and the liability is a real monster. Apparently, they have decided that aviation isn't a worthwhile market. If the aviation engine market was a panacea, you'd have more than 2 real players. Right now, you don't. You have two, plus a couple (Rotax and Jabiru) who are trying to make a go of it, then you can add a few more which are perpetually "almost there", or "next year", or whatever, but don't seem to ever get to market with product that earns and keeps a place in the market. |
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