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Diamond DA50

Apart from the ramp appeal, which doesn’t bring you anywhere (I find them pretty ugly actually), what’s the message of that plane ? Why would I buy it ? Planes like the Bonanza, the Mooney, the TB20, the C182, the C210, Cirrus and the like offer good bang for the buck if you don’t absolutely have to rely on the plane for your itinerary. If I need it to get from A to B, safely, I either get myself an older pressured Baron P58, a C340, 414, 421, or if budget allows an SET, or an older CJ.

Lets assume a chart: Price on the x-axis, deployability on the y-axis, and size of the bubble is safety. If you increase price (along the x-axis), wouldn’t you at least assume to have a gain in either deployability (higher on the y axis) or safety (bubble size) ? The DA50 is in a spot where nobody buys planes: it is a small bubble, low on y, but rather to the right on x.

Last Edited by EuroFlyer at 23 Oct 16:49
Safe landings !
EDLN, Germany

In Europe, with generally plenty of avgas and – in the principal GA-active countries – with its ex-WW2 legacy of loads of airfields, and permissive legal regimes, that’s no doubt true.

But, at 1M a pop, if they sell 100/year they make 100M/year, which is pretty good business I would expect most to be sold direct, not via dealers, which is even better.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Yeah those 100 I definitely want to see ;)

Safe landings !
EDLN, Germany

Yeah, but they have shifted way more than 100 DA42s, most of which went nowhere near any private owner. I reckon this one is for a different market. Way back, Socata sold lots of TBs to places like Indonesia, and many used the TB20 for ab initio PPL training.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I seriously doubt it will make any success. They will sell few but that’s all. It looks more like idea of having full range of products (entry level trainer – DA20, low-end SEP – DA40, high-end SEP – DA50, low-end MEP – DA42 and high-end MEP – DA62) rather than targeting specific niche or pilot profile. Or like somebody decided “let’s finally have DA50 certified” – you can remember versions with avgas engine, then with turbine, then diesel non-retractable and finally diesel retractable. And, as usual with Diamond, first release is unfinished product with many more iterations to make it as envisioned at the beginning of the process.

LDZA LDVA, Croatia

Given it is a mountain nation, you would think they would have developed a Cessna 185 diesel type bush plane as their heavy single proposition. Perhaps the composite airframe may not be accepted for this type of market?

A decent manufactured 1,500 lbs useful load diesel bush type SEP would find a ready market. The legacy 185 continues to go up in value, and a kerosene version would do very well.

Oxford (EGTK), United Kingdom

My guess is that they received an order from a military somewhere, and it made sense to simply certify the plane at the same time.
This design fits for reconnaissance aircraft in 2nd/3rd world countries.
Adding the aux tanks for mil-spec is easy, and the military doesn’t care what the MTOW is.

Again, my thought (having been a product manager) is that once they designed and built the thing, they simply released it to the open market for any low hanging fruit they may not have known about…

100% pure speculation

That would cannobalize the DA42MPP marketed for precisely what you mentioned.

always learning
LO__, Austria

It’s true, but I can’t imagine any other reason they would release the 50 in it’s current configuration…

Maybe. For mil orders they could have saved the hassle of gaining an EASA TCDS though.
Nah, I think it’s unlikely the 50 is a byproduct of a large mil order.

Last Edited by Snoopy at 24 Oct 23:46
always learning
LO__, Austria
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