Posted on 11/29/2007 8:46:29 AM PST by charles m
Textron Inc.'s Cessna Aircraft Co. will become the first U.S. manufacturer to turn over complete production of an airplane to a Chinese partner, a move intended to cut production costs and foster a nascent private-aviation market in China.
Cessna officials said China's state-owned Shenyang Aircraft Corp. will build the new Cessna 162 SkyCatcher at its factory in Shenyang, China. The planned single-engine, two-seat airplane will be the smallest in Cessna's product line. It is designed for training and what is known as the light-sport market, for recreational fliers.
Cessna hopes manufacturing in China will help keep the price of the plane low enough to attract new pilots to counter the dwindling ranks of U.S. recreational fliers. It also could lower the cost barrier for training new pilots amid surging demand for airline pilots world-wide.
The deal is scheduled to be announced this morning in China at a news conference in Beijing. Cessna, which said this summer that it would build the plane, estimates it will be available by late 2009.
Lewis Campbell, Textron's chairman and chief executive, said in an interview that lower manufacturing costs in China would allow Cessna to sell the airplane for $71,000 less than it would if it had built the plane at its factories in Wichita, Kan. The move also positions Cessna to play a larger role in the developing private- and corporate-aviation market in China.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Chinese Cessna During Taxi Traning
Crasshna.
Boo on Cessna. Shame on you. I hope this comes back to bight you folks BIG TIME.
I'll preface my comments by saying I grew up co-piloting private airplanes -- my father owned four of them over the years. I grew up assuming that I would also own airplanes, because it used to be a hobby affordable to anyone with a median income, but no longer, because prices have soared [pun intended] out of sight. More than anything else, lawyers killed private aviation with huge lawsuits. More regulations and requirements have also driven up the complexity and expense of aircraft. I also recall my first whiff of political correctness after the 1970's oil embargo -- some people opined that it was wasteful buring precious gas in luxury items such as planes and boats.
And we were supposed to have cheap, flying cars by now.
Instead of flight becoming more accessible to the common man, it’s done the opposite.
Conspiracy?
I’m not flying on ANYTHING made in China.
Bamboo wings won’t cut it....
So we’ll lose some more American manufacturing jobs. Big deal. Move along, nothing to see here.
Why pay an American to put the planes together when you can pay Charlie Chan’s cousins 2 cents an hour?
If the public had any idea of the overarching malfeasance of the chicoms, not just lead paint and toxic pet food, they would demand we nuke them.
Come fry in the new Crashna, you be so happy!
There's a lot of that goin' around. Politicians count on our ignorance and we so willingly supply it....
The Chinese do not respect quality control enough to be trusted with complete production. Those poor aircraft will have models with substandard parts/materials and serious lapses in assembly.
Yes, it *matters* if a cable rubs on a flat, perpendicular surface!
Yep.
Unbelievable...
He recently retired from Boeing - but was asked, by Boeing, to come back and work for a Chinese supplier as quality control liasion to Boeing. This supplier is trying to come up to speed to supply Dreamliner parts. He is in China now.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.