2025 FLYING Buyers Guide: Pistons
Slowly increasing availability of unleaded avgas is among the market developments for piston-engine airplanes.
CubCrafters XCub [Courtesy: CubCrafters]
Along with market developments for piston-engine airplanes, we are also closely watching the slowly increasing availability of unleaded avgas. The benefits should affect aircraft owners in terms of lowered maintenance costs as the harmful effects of lead on engines go away.
Sales of the Cirrus Aircraft SR series increased to 419 through the third quarter of 2024 over 389 in the same period of 2023. Cirrus is riding a wave of success. It introduced the latest version of the SR series (G7) early in 2024, and it proved popular. The upgrade included touchscreen interfaces, larger, high-resolution displays, advanced safety systems, improved visibility, more legroom, and the Cirrus IQ mobile app that provides remote access to real-time health and readiness information about the aircraft.
Sales of Diamond Aircraft for the first three quarters of 2023 and 204 were nearly the same—195 in 2023 and 194 in 2024. The DA40 Star led sales with 77 in the 2024 period, and the newer five-place DA50 RG sold 21. Its only direct competitor is the six-place Beechcraft (Textron) G36 Bonanza, which sold four during the same period. There is a demand for high-performance, single-engine retractable singles, although it is modest and probably quite price sensitive.
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The avgas piston twin market has been nearly dead for some time other than for the Piper Seminole. It’s used almost exclusively for training (17 sold in the period), and there was only one Beechcraft G58 Baron delivered and no Piper Senecas. However, Diamond rolled a total of 87 of its diesel-powered twins (DA42 and DA62) out the door in the first three quarters of 2024, over the 82 sold in the same time in 2023. The DA42 is aimed at the multiengine training market—39 were delivered in the first three quarters of 2024, while 48 of the DA62 were sold at the same time. We take that as an indicator that there is a demand for owner-flown piston twins with the kind of performance and safety offered by the Diamond line.
Diamond DA50 RG [Courtesy: Diamond Aircraft]
Piper’s bottom line through the third quarter was sweetened by the sales of 118 of its long-popular, all-purpose Archer/Pilot 100i, sold almost exclusively to flight schools as a trainer. Its fleet sales continue to look strong as one international flight school took first deliveries of a batch of 20 during 2024. Demand for the Seminole twin increased from 11 in the first three quarters of 2023 to 17 during the same time in 2024. We observed a steady demand for the high-performance piston M350, with 12 sold in the first three quarters of 2023 and 13 during that period in 2024.
Textron Aviation’s piston sales were amazingly consistent during the first three quarters of 2023 and 2024—193 airplanes. Not surprisingly, the world’s largest selling civilian airplane, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk, led the way with 120 each period. Its time-proven, predictable handling, and robust airframe continue to make it a top choice of flight schools as a solid all-around trainer that can handle the bashing inflicted by student pilots. The FAA’s decision to allow commercial students to use technically advanced aircraft (TAA), with sophisticated electronic flight instrument systems and autopilots, in lieu of retractable-gear airplanes for the commercial rating, proves to be a good thing for students, flight schools, and the sales of highly equipped Cessna 172s.
Cessna reintroduced the Turbo Skylane in 2023 in the second quarter of 2023, and we reviewed it in our 2024 Ultimate Issue. In the first three quarters of last year, 22 were delivered. In the same time frame, 25 normally aspirated Skylanes were sold. Sales of the Beechcraft G36 Bonanza and G58 Baron remained slow, with three and four sold. respectively. in 2023, and four and one in 2024.
Beechcraft Baron G58 [Courtesy: Textron Aviation]
Tecnam boasts one of the most diverse set of offerings in the piston world, from light sport aircraft (LSA) through its increasingly popular trainer—the 2024 P-Mentor with 44 units sold in the first three quarters of 2024—to its twin-engine, nine-passenger (two crewmember) commuter airliner/freighter, the P2012 Traveller (nine sold). We reviewed its luxury 140-knot, four-place Gran Lusso (grand luxury) in Issue 950/September 2024. Tecnam sold 193 airplanes in the first three quarters of 2023, which bumped to 218 during the same time in 2024.
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) began tracking electric airplane sales in 2023, when there were a total of 17 (10 in the first three quarters). GAMA still makes only a small fraction of the propeller-driven airplane market as there were only six sales (Pipistrel Virus SW 128/Velis Electro) in the first three quarters of 2024. We’ll continue to watch this infant market. The demand is there, but we await to see when technology develops to make electrically powered airplanes viable for a broad market.
This feature first appeared in the March Issue 956 of the FLYING print edition.
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