Who is the turbo single-engine market leader? In 2013, the turbo single-engine market share was still consolidated among just a few manufacturers. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) second quarter report provided the numbers for this discussion – “Personal transportation with piston turbo single-engine airplanes.”
We’ll include airplanes with 4 seats, Cirrus five seat configuration and 6 seat Cessna Stationair & Piper Malibu. In that segment there were a total of 138 piston turbo single-engine shipments as follows:
Cirrus SR22T = 64 or 46% Market Share
Cessna T182T = 26 or 19%
Cessna 400 Corvalis TTx = 1
Cessna T206H Stationair = 15 or 11%
Piper Malibu Mirage (pressurized) = 24 or 17%
Piper Malibu Matrix (non-pressurized) = 8 or 6%
Cirrus Aircraft SR22T turbos outnumber Cessna T182T turbo deliveries by almost 2.5 times. And, in the first half of 2013, Cirrus SR22T turbo shipments are 56% greater than the number of SR22 normally aspirated shipments.
So how many pilots are choosing to go turbo? Among the broad group of piston single-engine buyers (including 180 hp 4 seat planes), 26% are turbo aircraft shipments (First half 2013, 91 turbo shipments / 341 piston single-engine target segment shipments, excludes 6 seat Cessna Stationair and Piper Malibu).
But the target customer contemplating a turbo purchase is more closely represented among purchasers of high-performance aircraft. GAMA reports shipments of piston single-engines (200 hp or more) with 4 seats show 49% of the buyers are choosing turbo aircraft. That’s a significant demand among those target customers for turbo aircraft (91 turbo shipments / 186 high-performance shipments GAMA second quarter numbers 2013).
Based on GAMA reports, it’s been over a decade since Beechcraft Bonanza shipped a turbo single-engine airplane. In 2002, they shipped five B36TC planes. What happened to Bonanza?
I don’t hear a lot of pilots discussing the benefits of turbo aircraft. I hear comments on gas expense and maintenance with turbo planes. But those comments are most frequently from non-turbo pilots. But among the high-performance crowd almost half are choosing to go turbo. Are the reasons for buying turbo aircraft changing?
Next week I’ll post a discussion on Cirrus Aircraft SR22T turbo shipments.
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