Classic or contemporary: Which aircraft is best?

In an ironic twist that pits the automotive industry against the aircraft industry, the mix of classics to contemporary models is inverted.

In the car industry new, modern vehicles far outnumber the classics. Detroit, Michigan, Austin, Texas, Wolfsburg, Germany, and Tahara, Aichi, Japan, pump out Fords and Teslas, Volkswagens, and Toyotas by the hundreds of thousands. The cumulative number of new cars rolling onto the roads of the world each year is staggering. All with the latest and greatest tech, amenities, and major press coverage.

This massive production capability combined with readily available capital for buyers tends to make the replacement of a personal vehicle so easy that older models fall by the wayside in short order.

Want proof? When’s the last time you saw a Ford Granada, or a Chevy Chevelle, an Oldsmobile Cutlass, or an AMC Pacer? These were best-selling cars in 1975, yet they’re little more than a distant memory today.

This quick turnover may not be wise in a financial sense. Throwing away a purchase every few years that approximates a significant proportion of one’s annual salary is wasteful to a degree few can manage without long-term negative impact. But we do it often and we do it willingly. Because…oh look… the new model’s got bigger cupholders and Bluetooth!

Aircraft, on the other hand, are produced in relatively small numbers. Individual models may only number in the dozens in a given year. The total output of all general aircraft manufacturers worldwide might only number in the low thousands. As a result, the cost of production is high, which translates to the cost of making a purchase being out of reach for the average pilot, let alone the average wanna-be-pilot.

That new car might cost half your annual salary, but the new airplane is priced at a multiple of that number. You don’t have to look long or hard to find an appealing aircraft that is priced at something north of the resale value of your home.

Ouch.

The upshot of all this is predictable across the board. Classic cars are a rarity — so unusual, in fact, that small bands of enthusiasts gather in public from time to time to show off their throwback tech vehicles where they can admire and be inspired by the work of their peers. Prices have escalated to collector status, making even the most modest family cruiser from the 1950s or 1960s a truly expensive purchase. You might even consider them to be an investment.

Classic airplanes, on the other hand, are hangared and tied down at virtually every airport we might choose to visit. Aircraft manufactured during the Eisenhower administration are plentiful. Aircraft that rolled off the production line in this decade are rare.

The old aircraft benefit from one anomaly of aviation that has allowed the whole of the U.S. to remain as well stocked with classic flyers as Havana is with rolling steel carcasses from Detroit’s golden age. That peculiarity is this: Flight is optional, but maintenance is mandatory.

The old tube and fabric flivvers are periodically tucked away for recovering, which often becomes a full-blown restoration. The aluminum monocoque craft get new paint or a vinyl covering that looks as good or better at a lower cost and with far more creative designs than the average paint shop can affordably deliver.

Worn engines can be revitalized or replaced as the thickness of the wallet allows and the loss of compression requires.

The avionics tend to be old, even antiquated. But they work. Incandescent lights can be replaced with LEDs.

Despite fears to the contrary expressed loudly and often not so long ago, ADS-B can be installed in virtually any aircraft with an electrical system affordably, often in a single day.

A simple and inexpensive handheld radio can bring clear, reliable communication capability to those classics that never had an electrical system to begin with.

That’s a big win.

Even the FAA has gotten in on the act in recent years allowing the installation of gadgets and gizmos that weren’t included on the original Type Certificate Data Sheet. Digital instrumentation is now showing up in elderly aircraft, making flights in the most aged machines safer and more enjoyable than ever.

As for reliability, consider this: The Cessna 172 is the most popular general aviation aircraft ever produced. More than 44,000 have taken to the skies over the years. That’s a big number for a model intended for the general aviation market.

More impressive than that, however is the flight of a first edition C-172 that lasted — now get this — 64 days, 22 hours, and 19 minutes. Yep, that’s a historical fact.

Two daring individuals named Bob Timm and John Cook departed McCarran Field in Las Vegas on Dec. 4, 1958, and didn’t land until Feb. 2, 1959. They ate, washed, refueled, and stayed on task 24 hours a day, seven days a week, for more than two months. The distance they covered is roughly equivalent to circumnavigating the Earth six times.

Keep in mind this was in a straight tail C-172 that would be considered quaint by modern standards. It came off the line in the first year of production. The Continental powerplant produced an anemic 145 hp, far less than the modern equivalent model, but plenty to get the job done.

What’s the lesson in all this?

Maybe it’s this: Whatever we fly, no matter how old, how antiquated, how basic, or how underpowered, it flies.

If you can afford to own it, rent it, or borrow it, that’s the aircraft for you. That Taylorcraft BC-12D may not be as sexy or powerful as the newest model on your home field, but it’s inexpensive to buy, to maintain, and to fly.

Whether you’re time-building, traveling to grandma’s house, or showing a friend the majestic vistas seen only from altitude, that classic may be just the right aircraft for you.

Go old, go inexpensive, go classic. It might be the best deal you’ll find all day.