Re: Ercoupes - (Was: Light-Sport Aircraft Yahoo group LSAs with the Best Safety Record, and the Lowest Insurance Cost)

Look at what Cessna went thru with deep pockets, including mfg in China and STILL have a pretty pricey plane. I like that, the specs of the Cessna LSA and my coupe - favor my coupe at less than a fourth the price! Piper decided to go a different route, out of country mfg again, and still have a pricey product that mimics a coupe in some ways.
Even though Univair owns the type certificate, that alone does not allow them to manufacture planes. My friend who was making revival Taylorcrafts found some hitch after his first one that way, FAA was all over him about the fact that even though he owned the Type Certificate, he still needed some other bunch of letters to make or even remanufacture planes. He threw in the towell.

--- In Sport_Aircraft@yahoogroups.com, Roberto Waltman <lists@...> wrote:
>
> Helen Woods wrote:
> > Don, as an Ercoupe guy, perhaps you can answer my long standing
> > question. Who owns the type certificate for Ercoupe these days
>
> Univair - http://univairparts.com/
>
> > and why haven't they put it back into production?
>
> Good question - Possible answers: not profitable enough, not their
> main line of business, (the 'parts' in the company web site is very
> suggestive.)
>
> Last year there was a lot traffic in the Ercoupe mailing lists
> following an in-flight breakup accident. The company could not
> provide basic information, like if a couple of threaded holes in the
> spar were factory made, or done by later mods. Somebody mentioned
> (quoting from memory) that they have "a consultant that comes one day
> every two weeks to do some engineering work"
>
> I also would like to see it back in production (even with zero useful load)
> But then I would not be able to afford it, anyhow...
>
>
> Roberto Waltman
>

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