SkyCatcher to be built in China

wildbil7 · Post by **wildbil7** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 8:53 am

Read at AOPA site that the skycatcher is going to be built in china...seeing that the average Chinese wage for a Month is about $250 US. do you think the price of the catcher will be lowered? I wonder what it will cost to build a complete plane from start to finish and ship it to the US?. looks like Mucho profits for Cessna.

rsteele · Post by **rsteele** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 10:10 am

Cessna will probably do well with it until the Chinese copy the design, improve it a bit and start selling it back to the states for a third less than Cessna charges. Companies never seem to learn that manufacturing items in China is essentially giving away their intellectual property as well a training your competitor to replace you. This may well signal the end of Cessna's single engine piston business. In 10 years, C172 may mean Chinese 172.

oldsportpilot · Post by **oldsportpilot** » Fri Nov 30, 2007 3:41 pm

rsteele wrote:Cessna will probably do well with it until the Chinese copy the design, improve it a bit and start selling it back to the states for a third less than Cessna charges. Companies never seem to learn that manufacturing items in China is essentially giving away their intellectual property as well a training your competitor to replace you.

This phenomenon is what destroyed the American century-old Schwinn Bicycle Company that had made vast number of bikes in the US. The Schwinn family sold the name, and got out of the bike business.