Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Borg of General Aviation

Textron Aviation, an amalgamation of Hawker, Beechcraft and Cessna.

I'd be more worried about Hawker than anything else, for they compete with the Cessna Citation lineup.

As to the rest- meh. Beech's Baron and King Air really aren't in competition with anything Cessna makes. The Caravan is mostly a trash-hauler. Cessna hasn't made a piston twin for 30 or so years.

The closest competitor to the Bonanza is the Cessna Columbia 400 TTx. The Bonanza has more seats and that oh-so-sexy retractable gear. Bonanzas can handle grass strips, just not terribly short ones. I don't know if the TTx can do that as well. On the other hand, the TTx is a descendant of the Lancair family from the early 1980s, while the Bonanza is a maturation of an airplane that was designed back in 1945.
on or about

4 comments:

  1. hans3/18/2014 3:42 PM

    I'm so old I can remember Bonanzas selling for < $30k... friend of my dad had one and it was a joy to go off on weekends for fly-ins... and they were quiet enough you could actually talk... even on grass 2,000 ft. was enough

    ReplyDelete
  2. Murphy's Law3/18/2014 4:53 PM

    Bonanza. Want. Or Beech T-34.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Deadstick3/18/2014 7:06 PM

    Lovely airplane, the T-34, especially if you have one of the up-engined mods.

    I was in two AF Aero Clubs that had them, and had to quit both because they were pencil-whipping maintenance. Heartbreaking.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Old NFO3/18/2014 7:51 PM

    V-tail Bonanza, better known as Doctor and lawyer killers... But fun to fly!

    ReplyDelete

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