One Cessna Skycatcher Please, Easy on the Soy

The most surprising aspect of Cessna’s decision to build its new model 162 Skycatcher in China is that anyone was at all surprised by the move. Now comes word that some people are shocked, shocked enough, in fact, that they might want their deposits back.

Cessna’s Skycatcher blog recently found itself battered by a number of very unpleasant comments, some significantly loathsome enough that the company halted the posting of any fresh letters for a bit. As a side note, see Jetwhine’s “Rules of Engagement,” and you’ll notice that most blogs expect a certain amount of civility from posters.

That said, I’d encourage Jack Pelton and the Cessna board not to fret too much about the unpleasant comments they’ve seen. Take out the rude questions for certain, but continue to dialogue with customers. Initiating and maintaining a conversation is the fuel for the new social networking revolution that – like it or not – as the Honeymooners Ralph Kramden used to say is, “The wave of the future.”

The LSA Trend

Honestly though, the only people talking about not buying a C-162 because of the Chinese announcement are probably folks who either haven’t followed the evolution of light sport aircraft very closely or have some other agenda entirely.

Look at the website of Mr. LSA, Dan Johnson, and you’ll see that of the 60 or so LSA’s he’s written pilot reports on, only about 20 percent are built in the U.S.A. One marvelous little LSA I flew recently, the Remos, is built in Germany and shipped to the states in a crate for local assembly. Others are built in the Czech Republic, Russia, Romania, Italy and Slovakia to name a few.

                                                           The Remos G-3

Cessna’s team in the U.S. is designing the Skycatcher and the C162 will be flight tested here in the states long before the Chinese at Shenyang Aircraft Corporation begin putting the pieces together. All of the components – engines, avionics, tires – are also, for the most part made in America which is considerably more positive for American manufacturing than many LSA manufacturers can claim.

A Dose of Reality

No doubt some of the heat Cessna is taking is the result of some bad timing. The Chinese have been the center of attention for quite a few sub-standard products in the past 12 months, everything from food additives to toys. The recalls have also focused a considerable amount of fresh attention on the outsourcing issue, especially from union members who believe those efforts are killing American industry. But there is a vast difference between unregulated, consumer goods produced outside the U.S. and an intensely regulated product like an airplane.

Cessna is not the first aircraft builder to look to China for partners. Embraer is building regional jets there right now. My guess is that a company like Cessna, backed by Textron, the same company that owns Bell Helicopters, has noticed the potential vulnerabilities of outsourcing that have wreaked havoc at Boeing and Airbus. The problem for those big guys is that they have too narrow a product line to safely spread the cost of a manufacturing problem across the company. Building the 747 almost bankrupt Boeing in the 60s in fact.

In Cessna’s case, the Skycatcher, the least expensive aircraft in the line, was designed to help drive new cost-conscious student pilots to flight schools around this country and the world and reinvigorate the thrill of flight for pilots who have found the cost of flying rising faster than their checkbook balances.

And certainly the Skycatcher plugs a hole in the Cessna line that has prevented it from offering a training machine to integrate with the Cessna Pilot Center course developed in partnership with The King Schools. Soon Cessna will offer a range of products for buyers to move up from zero time pilots to a biz jet, just like they did 20 or 30 years ago.

No secret here either, the Cessna folks are looking for fresh ways to sell more of their airplanes to what is turning out to be the most serious potential customer for any U.S. company in history – China.

Now the But …

Does anyone seriously believe, however, that the number one aircraft builder in the world would risk its international reputation by delivering a product that does not maintain the Cessna standard for quality? I give the Cessna folks way more credit than that kind of risk taking.

If so much as even one questionably constructed Skycatcher showed up in Wichita, Cessna simply would not deliver it. The reason is simple … they don’t have to.

These are smart people with considerable resources and no small amount of manufacturing expertise. That’s why they were able to pull off the first Very Light Jet (VLJ) project like the Mustang while Eclipse is still struggling for complete certification. Sorry, but it’s simply a fact of life.

Some people may not like the choice of mainland China to build the Skycatcher, but it is time to see the protests for what they are, political posturing which is simply a cost of doing business around the globe these days.

Want to help reinvigorate the U.S. flight training market? Learn to love the products that are an ever-growing portion of the aviation landscape and focus your social reform protests where they have an opportunity to do some good … at a ballot box near you next November.

Or you might try making some civil comments soon on the Skycatcher blog and build what every blogger hopes for … a conversation about the issues.