By now, most homebuilders have heard that Van’s Aircraft, the largest company in homebuilding, is being sued for millions of dollars over what most people consider a baseless claim. While rank and file homebuilders may see this as just another get rich quick scheme from an ambulance chasing attorney and a lottery ticket mentality client, I would like to draw your attention to another possibility to explain the motivation for such a suit.
A bit of history: 20 years ago Mooney was going broke producing a few dozen planes a year. The perceived that part of their issue was they were trying to sell very expensive 4 seat, 250mph planes, but many potential customers were instead opting to have ‘hired guns’ build them a 4 seat, 350 mph Lancair IV-P, because it was pressurized, went 100 mph faster on the same fuel burn, and finished up about $100K less. (If you question this history, read the ‘hired gun’ story above, where I confess to being one of these people.) Mooney successfully lobbied the FAA to issue a directive to all the DAR’s in the country to have them specifically deny airworthiness certificates to Lancair IV’s they suspected of being built by hired guns. It had little effect, there was a lot of money in the game, and owners who wanted to get around the letter could always find a DAR who liked green money. But, none the less, it was established that high end homebuilts were the potential economic enemy of overpriced or antiquated certificated designs. The main reason why Mooney didn’t get far was they had no money nor strong influence in industry. A few years later they ended their run as a public company, and their stock was bought back for something like 17 cents a share.
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Fast forward to todays lawsuit:First a disclaimer: I have no evidence that my point here is the actual motivation, or partial motivation for the suit. What I am doing here is discussing the possibility that it is, and my suspicions. That is called my right to think, and it isn’t actionable slander nor libel. Read the idea, consider it, come to your own conclusions. It would be very nice if my idea was proven to be paranoid, but I have learned it is not wise to place great faith in all humans when a lot of money is involved.
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Read the lawsuit carefully. It describes homebuilding as a ‘loop hole” in the federal regulations. (this is a joke, but consider the possible goal) It also mentions that parties that produce certificated aircraft like Cirrus and Mooney, suffer economic damage from homebuilding. (In the era of ‘hired guns’ and lax enforcement of rules, this was partially true, but your average RV builder isn’t detracting anything from certificated sales today) Although I have no direct evidence, I have some strong suspicions that today’s ownership of certificated planes strongly supports the wording of this lawsuit, and would gleefully support a decision that would cripple Van’s Aircraft, particularly if it would knock the RV-10 from the market place.
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In the 1990’s Money was powerless to sustain an attack on homebuilding because they were going broke. Conversely, today Both Cirrus and Mooney are owned by a very deep pocket, The government of the Peoples ‘Republic’ of China. Read the words of the lawsuit and decide for yourself who’s interest it is in that homebuilts be considered a “loop hole”.
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You will not hear any discussion from official sources, nor industry people about the potential role of deep pockets in this lawsuit. In the ‘new EAA’ a company like Cirrus is more important than Van’s aircraft. This is an effect of having the ‘big tent’ approach and forgetting what the first initial of the EAA stands for. Our President, is the former CEO of Cessna who moved the C-162 production to China. I suspect he has a great number of friends from the PRC, and recognizes that they are too big a contributor to the ‘corporate’ EAA to be pissed off.
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It is very hard to overstate the influence of foreign money in general aviation today. Read this: Communist Chinese government at Oshkosh, for a bit of perspective. If you want to have a clearer picture of how they also own a lot of ‘journalists’, go back and read how many prominent writers came out of the woodwork when the Chinese bought Continental motors to write positive reviews of how great this was going to be for everyone. You would have to be a stooge to think that these were not written for money or serious perks. Consider this when reading any industry persons comments, or even considering why they would be silent when a great company like Van’s is being attacked by a baseless lawsuit.
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If you think this all sounds preposterous, do a little research and read up on how Superior engines, once an American owned business, was purchased by the Chinese. Their major competitor was ECI. Superior supported an all out effort to get the FAA to issue a massive AD on ECI products. ‘Engine experts’ pretending to be on no ones payroll, chimed in on this in support of Superior. In time this drastically affected the value of ECI as a business. And just like that, Superior turned around and Purchased ECI, at a greatly reduced value. Follow that: A foreign owned company plays a role lobbying the US federal agency, the FAA to take an action that will reduce the value of a US owned company so they can buy it cheaper. After the sale, the same ‘engine experts’ are silent about ECI’s products. If Van’s aircraft is laid low by a judgment in this suit, have zero surprise if the Chinese government shows up as a new potential owner.
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My favorite lie ever told at Oshkosh: When Kim Winner, Continental’s marketing rep. at Oshkosh was asked about the company moving production from the US to China, she came up with this spin: She told everyone present that this was just the company moving parts to China to ‘service the underground private flying market in China that the Government didn’t know about’. I asked how it was that Continental could be owned by the Chinese government, and be shipping parts to people who were allegedly flying Continental powered light aircraft in China, yet the same government, in a police state, would be totally unaware that such flying was taking place. No answer. Evidently the people who dreamed up that spin for Kim to present at Oshkosh were from the same school as the ones who told a guy from Arkansas that saying he “didn’t inhale” would allow him to pass as an honest person.
