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Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.aviation
Subject: Re: No advances in GA plane designs?
Message-ID: <6350@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Feb-86 20:47:37 EST
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6350
Posted: Mon Feb  3 20:47:37 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 3-Feb-86 20:47:37 EST
References: <1009@terak.UUCP> <6316@utzoo.UUCP>, <1024@terak.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 33

> > The advances have not been
> > the result of greater sophistication; they have been the result of bigger
> > price tags.  Which is what the complaint is about.
> 
> Cause and effect; which is which?  High prices didn't bring about
> sophistication.  Sophistication brought about high prices.

I wasn't implying a cause-and-effect relationship, I was pointing out that
a comparison of today's very expensive aircraft loaded with options against
yesterday's fairly cheap aircraft in minimal configuration is obviously going
to conclude that the modern one has more useful features.  But useful
features that I cannot afford are of no use to me.

> In 1983, AOPA Pilot noted that the base price of a '83 Skyhawk was
> virtually identical to that of a '63 Skyhawk after allowing for
> inflation.  And the '83 is better equipped than the '63 was...

Now *this* is a reasonable comparison, since it's normalized on price.
More detail on this one would be nice.

> What has increased is the sophistication demanded by buyers.  In '63
> many pilots would buy a 'hawk with only a few options; but in '83 the
> plane that AOPA flew for a review had $36,000 worth of options (added
> to a $44,000 base price!)

What AOPA gets for a review isn't necessarily what its members will buy,
although one would hope for a correlation.  This also doesn't consider
the possibility that the buyers demanding the sophistication are the high
end of the market only, with the low end increasingly giving up entirely
on aircraft ownership.  Not many people buy bare-bones yachts, either.
-- 
				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
				{allegra,ihnp4,linus,decvax}!utzoo!henry