Cessna Has Been Watching The SportPlane Movement Carefully... Guess Why?

You can't say you didn't see this one coming... As Cessnas executives think about whether they'll build a light sport aircraft, they're faced with the rather daunting task of trying to do so at light sport prices.

CEO Jack Pelton says that it wouldn't make sense to build such an aircraft if Cessna can't sell it for less than $100-thousand. That's between half and a quarter of the cost of buying a single-engine aircraft fresh off the assembly line these days. So how do you cut costs to make that possible? The Wichita Eagle's aviation reporter, Molly McMillin, tells us Cessnas is now looking at the same sorts of technologies and methods used by the homebuilt industry. Matched-hole drilling is one way Pelton figures he can bring the cost way down.

Now... you home builders can call us out on this if you want, but my understanding of matched-point drilling is -- you pre-drill holes in the aluminum skin of the aircraft, using computers to line up the drill-points on parts that could very well be made in different places. That way, when you get ready to assemble the aircraft, the holes line up and -- voila! -- you simply insert the bolts or rivets to tie the parts together. Cessna engineers tell the Eagle this is a very accurate way to build aircraft. Pre-drilling allows for time and cost savings during final assembly... they say. And it seems to have worked pretty well with the light sport concept plane shown at Oshkosh last month.

How did Cessna engineers come up with the idea of matched-point drilling?

You're gonna LOVE this... as it seems that one of them has been putting together a SportPlane kit in his garage, and... well, you can figure out the rest. You CAN teach an old dog some new tricks.

FMI: www.cessna.textron.com