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Another "Inexpensive Engine" Discussion

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rdj

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Moderator Note: Forked this discussion off of the Why Inexpensive? Results and Conclusions. thread. This is a good discussion, but becoming more and more off-topic for that original thread.

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And yes, there's a real dearth of two-seaters at this price point that don't fall some distance from the rest of the characteristics pointed out in that poll. This niche may not be "working" simply because there's a dearth of designs that really meet the interests of those shopping in it.

It's still my opinion that the primary reason there's a dearth of inexpensive aircraft--particularly two-seaters--is because there is no inexpensive yet reliable engine available to power it. At a $15K-$20K price point, new Lycomings, Jabirus, Rotaxes, whatever, eat up the entire budget, leaving almost nothing for airframe, propeller, wheels, or anything else. The only options are high-maintenance 2-strokes with a distressing tendency to seize at inappropriate times, heavy auto conversions with tricky PSRU's that tend to self-destruct at inappropriate times, or VW derivatives. Even semi-reliable versions of the latter two (say a Viking or a Revmaster) are going to eat up over half the budget, and they barely have the horsepower needed to fly two 21st century pilots around, judging from the results of your pilot weight poll.

Solve the inexpensive engine problem (eg something like an auto-fuel 115HP O-235 for 1/3 the total cost of the plane, around $6.5K) and you will have gone a long way toward solving the inexpensive airplane problem.
 
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