At some point, you don’t have a choice. Textron is the only American company left that’s credibly in the training market, and they don’t offer a twin unless you want a Baron as a trainer - for about twice the price.
1 replyMaybe if there were any standard category American trainers that were a) designed for the purpose and/or b) modern designs. Or, if there weren’t such a bias against LSAs: the RV12 has proven itself as a trainer and the Vashon Ranger is designed as one, but after 17 years of the aviation establishment insisting that LSAs aren’t real airplanes, what can you expect?
Cessna dropped the C152 decades ago and people have had to put up with the C172 in the training role since. Neither is a modern design: you couldn’t sell a 152 in the training market today; the cabin is too small. The 172 is barely any better; people use them because that’s what there is.
Piper has redesigned the PA28 as a 3-seater for training at a lower price point than the 4-seater (nice piece of price discrimination, kudos to the marketing person who came up with that) but the basic airframe and engine are still 60 years old. I guess you can always market that as “proven”; that’s how lack of innovation is always marketed in aerospace.
Piper is foreign owned.
The “trainer” was perfected so there is no real way to improve on the basics. What we need are innovations to cut build times to as close to zero as possible. I keep thinking of mass produced foam/fiberglass wings and surfaces like ARF model airplanes. Make 20 complete wings an hour and let them cure for a few more. Crank them out like model airplanes.