Companies in the sport aircraft business segment are probably not used to being analyzed by financial market specialists. But news source The Voice of the South cited a report from market watchdog HNY Research that the global market for this aviation segment was pegged at $115.36 million in 2020 and is expected to grow by 8.95 percent by 2027. Given that the entire market is valued at not much more than the cost of a single Boeing 737-900, it might come as a surprise that assembling a report for potential investors even happened. But HNY Research found the time to do just that. For the price of submitting contact information, a sample PDF is available here. [Clarification: AVweb contacted the distributor of HNY Research’s report at the link above by phone and learned that the free sample PDF includes only the format of the final 138-page report and information as to the scope of its content, but not any of the data, itself. The cost of the full report is $3,500 for individual users and $7,000 for corporate applications.]
The report is broken down according to operations (Sport and Recreation, Flight Training, and Aircraft Rental) as well as by aircraft certification categories (Special Light Sport Aircraft—S-LSA, and Experimental Light Sport Aircraft—E-LSA). “Key indicators” for market analysis include market players and competitors, capacity/sales, revenue, selling price and gross margin 2016-2027, and sales, “with a thorough analysis of the market’s competitive landscape and detailed information on vendors and comprehensive details of factors that will challenge the growth of major market vendors,” according to HNY Research. Vendors listed in the report included CubCrafters, Flight Design, Legend Aircraft, Tecnam, Cessna, Czech Sport Aircraft, Remos, Jabiru, CGS Aviation, Progressive, Aerodyne, Aeroprakt, The Airplane Factory, BOT Aircraft, Ekolot, Kitfox Aircraft and LSA America.
They left off the largest LSA manufacturer of all – kit planes. Does anyone read these things, let alone pay for them?
Since kit plane suppliers are not aircraft manufacturers – the builder is the manufacturer of the aircraft – maybe that technical difference was used.
But they are an investment.
Darryl Murphy tried to sell his operation for years, finally succeeded I understand.
Wasn’t the Cessna 162 supposed to be the savior for light sport aviation? We all know how that turned out. Perhaps if Cessna just reintroduced their 152 in composite form, not built it in China, and lowered the price, this debacle wouldn’t have happened.
You wouldn’t even need to do a composite reprise.
Just do the math for matching holes, and throw away the hand drills – and the associated labor hours.
I propose a compromise. Redo the fuselage in composite to improve space, drag, weight, and crash worthiness. Keep the flight surfaces metal and update for better manufacturing.
Match holes and do like the Vashon Ranger and get the pre-panted aluminum.
It would be nice to get another 200 new 152’s flying with glass panels.
Redo the 152? Get serious. If it doesn’t burn kerosene (excuse me, SAF), Cessna isn’t interested.