here [ local copy ]
The new GAMA Report for 2016 is out.
http://www.gama.aero/files/documents/2016ShipmentReport02222017.pdf
According to it, shipments of piston airplanes have slipped a full 4.9 % in comparison to 2015, biz jets even 7.9%. The only gain in this cathegory are turboprops with 3.4%.
Of the manufacturers, the following numbers have come out (my selection).
Cirrus shipped a total of 320 airplanes, of which 3 jets, 35 SR20, 133 SR22 and 145 SR22T
Cessna shipped 100 C172SP and 50 C182. No Corvalis were shipped.
Beech shipped 25 Bonanzas and 20 Barons.
Diamond shipped a total of 132 airplanes, of which 20 Katanas, 48 DA40, 34 DA42 and 30 DA62.
Mooney shipped a total of 7 airplanes, 1 Ovation and 6 Acclaims.
Piper shipped a total of 127 airplanes, of which 47 PA28, 7 Arrows, 3 Senecas, 10 Seminoles (!), 26 Piston Malibus, 12 M500 and 22 M600.
Tecnam sold a total of 191 airplanes of which 73 LSA’s however. Further they shipped 33 P2002, 7 P92JS, 24 P2008, 32 P2006T, 22 P2010.
In comparison with 2015, Cessna sold 143 C172, however only 33 Skyhawks. Cirrus all in all saw a 6% increase. Piper all in all sold 11 airplanes less, but shifted towards the high end market. Mooney sold again 7 airplanes, as in 2015.
Interesting numbers for the light twins: 20 Barons still got sold and 10 Seminoles but only 3 Senecas. The DA42 is the best selling twin with 34 pieces followed by the Tecnam with 32.
In the high end turboprop area, Piper sold 34 of their turboprop Mailibus, Daher sold 54 TBM9xx and Pilatus 92 PC12.
In general, those figures show clearly that the market for GA piston planes stays on a very low and almost negligible niveau. The only company selling in reasonable numbers is Cirrus, followed by Tecnam, Cessna and Piper. Most others such as American Champion, Maule or Mooney basically sell on single digits.
I checked the Vans RV site for comparison and they are now showing 9600 completed aircraft reported to them, which compared with the last time I checked in Nov 14 indicates about 350 RV completions per year during 2015/16.
Mooney_Driver wrote:
No Corvalis were shipped.
Not quite, the PDF says Cessna has sold 31 CE-240 TTX over the year. There are still some manufacturers missing, like Robin, Viking, Tomark, DynAero, CZAW, and other LSA manufacturers, Scheibe, all the glider manufacturers, almost all ULM manufacturers. And every year, the new aircraft market competes with a very strong and good used aircraft market.
Yep, Cessna dropped the Corvalis name a few years ago.
Likewise, a turboprop Malibu from Piper never existed. Both the Malibu and Meridian names have been dropped by Piper. All Mxx0 now. Confusingly, they kept the Matrix name for just that one variant of the PA46.
The DA20-C1 is not a Katana, but an Eclipse. Katanas have not been built for 20 years.
Next year will likely be better in terms of total industry turnover, because of Cirrus alone.
mh wrote:
There are still some manufacturers missing, like Robin, Viking, Tomark, DynAero, CZAW, and other LSA manufacturers, Scheibe, all the glider manufacturers, almost all ULM manufacturers.
That is really odd in fact. The statistics cannot be used to see what is going on in the industry. It cannot be used to see trends or see changes (except for a very narrow scope). It’s just numbers that may or may not become better next year. It can be used to say that Cirrus sells more aircraft than Cessna. But, as Silvaire points out, more RVs are entering the scene than any of the factory planes. That’s just one kit manufacturer of many. The best selling one, but still. For the industry as a whole, all subcontractors and manufacturers of bits and pieces, this is what matters. They know who they sell stuff to of course, so one have to wonder for whom they make this statistics. Some numbers are better than no numbers I guess 
mh wrote:
Cessna has sold 31 CE-240 TTX over the year.
Ah right, I missed that, first time I hear this type designator at all. Unfortunately I can’t update the initial post.
boscomantico wrote:
Both the Malibu and Meridian names have been dropped by Piper. All Mxx0 now.
Both are turboprops however, right? They do give the PA46-350 separate, that is the piston variant as far as I could see.
It is true that GAMA does not have all manufacturers but I would say most of the relevant ones are there. Especcially for Europe, kits simply do not count for serious GA flying as they are still restricted too much in what they can do and what not. As a market feel for certified GA I’d say the GAMA report still gives a pretty good feel.
Peter, is there a way you could update my post with the CE-240 figures and correct the Malibu part?
Mooney_Driver wrote:
Both are turboprops however, right?
The Meridian is a TP. All other Malibu variants have piston engines.
Looking at the list again, I found it astonishing that AVIC claims to have built 4 Y5B. These are the Chinese built AN-2 biplanes…
mh wrote:
Looking at the list again, I found it astonishing that AVIC claims to have built 4 Y5B. These are the Chinese built AN-2 biplanes…
That’s interesting… I’d guess a small Chinese government order for a quasi-commercial organization.
Vans RVs and the like certainly do count for serious flying in the US, and are front and center within 2017 GA business. GAMA is important as a subset of GA, but hasn’t represented the piston engined GA industry as a whole for a long time. GAMA data better represents the state of new commercial and business GA airframe production. That’s fine as long as you don’t see it as the whole picture, or that government certification provides legitimacy to the business of making aircraft or money.
I think an analogy would be if the motorcycle industry association (MIC) had ignored off road motorcycle production in the 1970s. They didn’t, because the off road motorcycle industry of that era was a huge ‘uncertified’ boom that made a lot of products and money, as well as new technology. It’s still important today.
