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"Fun" fact - it was the lawyers that did it. There was a real nasty lawsuit against one of the GA manufacturers. I believe it was Cirrus but it could be Cessn
by Plasmoid 4y ago
"Fun" fact - it was the lawyers that did it.
There was a real nasty lawsuit against one of the GA manufacturers. I believe it was Cirrus but it could be Cessna. Basically, this person sued everyone because their relative died in a flight. I mean everyone, if your part could be installed in this aircraft, sued.
The result was that Cessna stopped making the 172 in 1986 because the legal liability was too high. The most popular aircraft ever made was not for sale because of the liability. Production has resumed but something like 50% of the cost is just liability insurance for the inevitable lawsuit.
- fsckboy 4y agocould it have been Beechcraft? They made the Bonanza, not so affectionately called the "fork-tailed Dr killer" and maybe not so fairly either. I think they weren't particularly unsafe, but being more expensive they had a different population flying them.
- fijiaarone 4y agoThose swinging yokes on the Beechcraft Bonanza were way weirder than the V tail.
- AdrianB1 4y agoNo, the rate of accidents with Bonanza was found to be caused not by any defect of the airplane, but the high performance airplane-low pilot skill combination. It was a had too big for many people.
- coredog64 4y agoIn the mid 90s, Congress passed a law capping the liability tail for manufacturers. That helped some, in that most of the planes from the 50s and 60s were off the manufacturer’s books. But it’s still crazy because GA is a high income pursuit. So any lawsuit for lifetime earnings is going to be huge.