Cessna Aircraft Co. has modified the tail on its Light Sport Aircraft.
According to Cessna Manager of Communications Angela Landwher, the vertical tail was made larger and given less sweep in response to a stall-spin accident during flight testing last year. During a test flight, the LSA entered a spin from which the pilot could not pull out. He parachuted safely from the airplane.The SkyCatcher crashed in a field.
Landwher told General Aviation News that the spin simulations of the SkyCatcher with the modified tail “did not indicate any unrecoverable spin characteristics.” She added that deliveries of the SkyCatcher are still on track for the latter half of 2009. Cessna has more than 1,000 orders on the books for the SkyCatcher, which is priced at about $111,500
The aircraft will be built at Shenyang Aircraft Co. in Shenyang, China.
“The assembly jigs and tooling are already in China,” she said. “The engines and avionics are being shipped over.”
The SkyCatcher sports a Continental 0-200D engine and a Garmin G300 avionics package.
For more information: www.Cessna.com.
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I have to admit my eyes opened wide on the ‘made in China’ revelation and then I reminded myself that the U.S. needs to find a way to compete in a global economy and old style isolationism just won’t cut it in this new world economy. I hope that a sharp eye is kept on quality control at the manufacturing plant (especially with all the news on the q.c. problems with food manufacturing in China).
Well you can’t have a union without a vote and cessna’s workers are voteing themselfs out of a job. I won’t buy a plane from china no matter whos name is on it.
Why is it when the entire U.S. is in a depression that unions can’t set aside their issues to help the nation get out of a slump. It is because us sending our jobs overseas that we got here. I feel that Cessna should drop the union and bring in all new people to build this here. Just my 2 cents.
The difference in price of production is in the tens of thousands of dollars not $500 to $1500. The fault is in the Unions and the politicians who protect them. Can’t blame the execs when this is there only viable option to stay even remotely competitive.
Cessna is compeating with other LSA.s that are being built by other non union labor.the american flying public will not pay the differance in price between union built and colie built. Call it the WALMART syndrome?
I find it disturbing that LABOR UNIONs have such a strangle hold on the US craftsmen of this country. An unskilled laborer for a union at an auto factory is not qualified to make 60K per year. When will America wake up and give back pride and craftsmanship to this country. I’ll pay more for an American made product, and by doing so, we will recover from this downward spiral of economics we now face.
smart cessna boss hah! why don’t they sell us chiness price too!! and hope this aircraft won’t fall apart as lot of thing that made in china!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is a slap in the face to the American public. I was looking forward to purchasing or renting this aircraft and now forget it. I am getting tired of owing my hard earned money to the Chinese. Increase the price, drop the Unions and bring the work back here.
In these very bad times, and Cessna as well as thousands of other companys in the US, why would you not build that aircraft in the
US. I understand that you want to put it on the market to compete
but there is also most of the orders you have even with a $500-1500
increase in price would keep people working in the US. We in the labor
market and the Business moving to foreign countries make us our own worst enemy. There must be a way to create more jobs in America and
manufacture more in America.
Just my thoughts
Why is it not being built in the United States?
It is too bad that the assembly of Cessna’s Skycatcher will be in China. I thoroughly understand the economics of using the super cheap labor, which must be really low in order to absorb the shipping costs in both directions. It is a very unfortunate situation that an American company cannot use American labor, and the unions who hold onto their mantra of not “caving in” no matter what, have such a choke hold on the workers that outsourceing is the result. It’s a loss for all really.
I have no doubt that the “numbers” drove the offshore decision, and I am equally sure that Cessna execs would much rather have built the airplane in the US if given an economic choice. It is a complicated situation, but bottom line, workers here are being laid off, Chineese are getting hired, and the USA losses another round in trading, skilled workers out of work, and negative balance of payments goes on.