SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Talk about airplanes! At last count, there are 39 (and growing) FAA certificated S-LSA (special light sport aircraft). These are factory-built ready to fly airplanes. If you can't afford a factory-built LSA, consider buying an E-LSA kit (experimental LSA - up to 99% complete).

Moderator: drseti

Post Reply
Cluemeister
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:20 pm

SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by Cluemeister »

Dan Johnson has posted the 2015 SLSA sales figures on his website. Both the cumulative since-the-beginning chart, and the calendar year 2015 sales chart.

Very interesting information. http://www.bydanjohnson.com/index.cfm
User avatar
azsportpilot
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:27 pm
Location: Hattiesburg, MS
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by azsportpilot »

sorry, cant see any of the info you are referring to

perhaps a bad link, just goes to his main page

when clicking on lsa market tab, it says "subscription only"
John Sarra CFI-S
1946 Aeronca Chief

-Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!
Flocker
Posts: 635
Joined: Mon Nov 05, 2012 10:16 am
Location: Atlanta GA; Home Airport: PDK

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by Flocker »

Aviation Real Estate Broker
Cluemeister
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:20 pm

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by Cluemeister »

Thanks Flocker, Dan Johnson doesn't normally assign permanent links to each story. So the older the post, the harder it is to find!
User avatar
azsportpilot
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:27 pm
Location: Hattiesburg, MS
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by azsportpilot »

here it is, for those who cant find it on the website
Attachments
here it is
here it is
2015 lsa.jpg (97.33 KiB) Viewed 7423 times
John Sarra CFI-S
1946 Aeronca Chief

-Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!
Cluemeister
Posts: 329
Joined: Mon Nov 02, 2015 8:20 pm

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by Cluemeister »

This list is the top selling SLSA for last year only, not cumulative.
Attachments
2100_3.jpg
2100_3.jpg (67.61 KiB) Viewed 7417 times
User avatar
azsportpilot
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:27 pm
Location: Hattiesburg, MS
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by azsportpilot »

wow, looks like the industry leader (the iPhone of the LSA world) Flight Design CT has taken quite a tumble

Remos and Cessna are gone from the list entirely.

many were predicting we would see as many as 50 or more SLSA manufacturers, but the small operators would disappear quickly and we would be left with Cessna, Piper and Cirrus.........................how wrong they were
Last edited by azsportpilot on Fri Jun 10, 2016 11:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
John Sarra CFI-S
1946 Aeronca Chief

-Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!
User avatar
azsportpilot
Posts: 72
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 12:27 pm
Location: Hattiesburg, MS
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by azsportpilot »

i guess the fact that the:

Cirrus SR-S was nothing more than a rebadged FK-Lightplanes FK14 slowed down for the US LSA market didn't help
Cessna Skycatcher lost both of their prototypes to crashes, suffered from low useful load and door problems didn't help either
Piper Sport was simply a rebadged CSA SportCruiser... marked up slightly for the Piper name

the CT is a great plane, I can't see why they are not still on top, possibly market saturation?
John Sarra CFI-S
1946 Aeronca Chief

-Mankind has a perfect record in aviation; we never left one up there!
User avatar
zaitcev
Posts: 633
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:38 pm
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by zaitcev »

azsportpilot wrote:the CT is a great plane, I can't see why they are not still on top, possibly market saturation?
Because FD overstretched their finances and went bankrupt because of the expense of developing their new airplane, the C4. Same thing happened to Diamond because of D-Jet (neither of them technically ended in what we know as legal bankrupcy but both went bankrupt and would not survive without an infusion of outside capital). FD stopped delivering airplanes and thus there weren't anything to sell. Even without the bankrupcy CubCrafters were going to overtake them in time, but this happened sooner.

I'm in the market, but I cannot afford a new-ish CTLS, and the old CTSW that I can afford lack the baggage compartment (as I understand). And they are still expensive for what they offer. I'm looking at RV-6/6A now.
3Dreaming
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Location: noble, IL USA

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by 3Dreaming »

zaitcev wrote:
azsportpilot wrote:the CT is a great plane, I can't see why they are not still on top, possibly market saturation?
Because FD overstretched their finances and went bankrupt because of the expense of developing their new airplane, the C4. Same thing happened to Diamond because of D-Jet (neither of them technically ended in what we know as legal bankrupcy but both went bankrupt and would not survive without an infusion of outside capital). FD stopped delivering airplanes and thus there weren't anything to sell. Even without the bankrupcy CubCrafters were going to overtake them in time, but this happened sooner.

I'm in the market, but I cannot afford a new-ish CTLS, and the old CTSW that I can afford lack the baggage compartment (as I understand). And they are still expensive for what they offer. I'm looking at RV-6/6A now.
Just so you know the CTSW has more bagage space than the CTLS. What the CTLS does have is some storage space in the cabin in the form of a hat shelf.
Wm.Ince
Posts: 1080
Joined: Sun Nov 17, 2013 3:27 pm
Location: Clearwater, FL

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by Wm.Ince »

3Dreaming wrote:Just so you know the CTSW has more bagage space than the CTLS. What the CTLS does have is some storage space in the cabin in the form of a hat shelf.
Correct. That is something I like about the CTSW vs. CTLS.
Additionally, my empty weight is 749#, which allows a good allowable payload for an LSA.
Considering price, performance, range, payload and shoulder room, you just can't beat a CTSW.
That withstanding, there are some trade offs for sure.
Bill Ince
LSRI
Retired Heavy Equipment Operator
User avatar
CharlieTango
Posts: 1000
Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2006 10:04 am
Location: Mammoth Lakes, California

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by CharlieTango »

Used CTs sell, new ones are too expensive. They need to be $90k new to sell in any quantity.
User avatar
zaitcev
Posts: 633
Joined: Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:38 pm
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by zaitcev »

3Dreaming wrote:Just so you know the CTSW has more bagage space than the CTLS. What the CTLS does have is some storage space in the cabin in the form of a hat shelf.
Thanks a lot for the correction. I seemed to recall that CTLS added the outside hatch that hangs on 2 thin steel cables when unlocked. Does CTSW have that hatch too? If not, how do you access the baggage area in it?
3Dreaming
Posts: 3107
Joined: Sun Jan 10, 2010 6:13 pm
Location: noble, IL USA

Re: SLSA 2015 sales and market share

Post by 3Dreaming »

The CTSW has triangular shaped bagage door, where the CTLS has a more rectangular shaped door.
Post Reply