wanttaja@ssc-vax.UUCP (Ronald J Wanttaja) (01/15/86)
>> There was a recent article in Aviation Consumer that picked the airplanes >> in each of several categories with the best and worst safety records. >> In essentially all cases, the safest airplane was the most popular, >> by a fairly wide margin. Are you still sure safety doesn't sell? > Yes. Good for Cessna for making their planes safe. You mean, "Good for Cessna for not being innovative." The AC article referenced speculated that the good record of Cessna aircraft was due to: 1. Strut-braced wings 2. Easy handling characteristics Take a 152, turn it into a taildragger, and what do you have? A 1946 Cessna 140 with square corners, that's what. Ditto for the C-172==C-170. Cessna's current crop of single-engine aircraft could have been made 40 years ago, with the exception of electronics. Even the engines are (practically) unchanged! Cessna has always been popular because their products are low priced... the true design and tooling was done 40 years ago. The bad characteristics of the C-140 & C-170 aircraft were mostly tamed by the addition of a nosewheel. By happy circumstance, the design had few other vices. With mediocre performance and low price, Cessna leads the market. But the safety record is secondary. Check your 172's seat tracks lately? The "Easy handling characteristics" comes in under "popularity." Since Cessna is the post popular lightplane, naturally, its handling is considered "Standard." Where Cessna deviates from this standard, like the Cardinal, the accident rate goes up. One cannot argue with success, however. Cessna aircraft *are* safest, whatever the reasons. But I doubt many pilot examine safety before buying a particular brand. No one (except Dick Grace :-) ) ever bought an airplane to crash in. And you wonder... if everyone had to take basic instruction in a Champ or a Grumman TR-2 (listed by AC as the worst 2-seater for safety), what would the Cessna accident rate look like? Ron Wanttaja (ssc-vax!wanttaja) _FLYING_ once gave these instuctions for landing a Cessna: "Point it at the end of the runway, and pull back on the black knob when you feel a thump."