Aircraft Research

Jesco Freund

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Beta Team
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Today 6:57 AM
Hi all,

I did a bit of math and statistics this afternoon to figure out which aircraft types could be candidates for purchase or lease by the FSE group. Playing with some data feeds and other information, I managed to calculate the cost per seat mile (including fees, maintenance, etc.) for each model available in FSE (based on some assumptions I gladly share if someone's interested in ;) ).

Just for explanation of the figures below: PAX is not the number of seats, but the number of passengers that can be taken along in the aircraft. The cost per seat mile is indicated in US-$. Of course if you want to know the cost per mile flown (using nmi here), just multiply the indicated cost with the number of PAX.

Another thing to keep in mind: when talking about cost per seat mile, the speed of an aircraft plays a significant role. Basically CPSM = Total operating cost per hour divided by the cruise speed and the number of passenger seats. Therefore, relatively slow aircrafts can end up far back in the ranking: In the three PAX class, the Cessna 172 Skyhawk is only rank 45 with cost per seat mile of $0.63, but it's operating cost (excluding pilot fee) per hour are only $88 compared to $126 the SR-22 costs. But the SR-22 is twice as fast as the C172, so it flies double miles in one hour.

Please note: Multi-Crew aircrafts and aircrafts that cannot be purchased in FSE (e. g. 747-400) were excluded from this list.

[1 PAX]
  1. Lancair Legacy (cpsm $0.96 / base price k$57)
  2. Vans RV-7/7A (cpsm $1.07 / base price k$41)
  3. Beechcraft T34 Mentor (cpsm $1.33 / base price k$93)

[2 PAX]
  1. SIAI-Marchetti SF260 (cpsm $0.70 / base price k$86)
  2. Cessna L-19/O-1 Birddog (cpsm $0.73 / base price k$104)
  3. Aviat A-1 Husky (cpsm $0.74 / base price k$27)

[3 PAX]
  1. Cirrus SR22 G2 (cpsm $0.38 / base price k$156)
  2. Columbia 400 (cpsm $0.40 / base price k$186)
  3. Lancair Legacy IV-P (cpsm $0.41 / base price k$254)

[4 PAX]
  1. Found Bush Hawk (cpsm $0.34 / base price k$165)
  2. Cessna 195 (cpsm $0.37 / base price k$160)
  3. Maule M-7 (cpsm $0.39 / base price k$152)

[5 PAX]
  1. Beechcraft Bonanza F33 (cpsm $0.30 / base price k$227)
  2. Beechcraft Bonanza V35 (cpsm $0.30 / base price k$227)
  3. Cessna 206 Stationair (cpsm $0.31 / base price k$208)

[6 PAX]
  1. Socata TBM 850 (cpsm $0.31 / base price k$491)
  2. Aero Design AC680S (cpsm $0.33 / base price k$342)
  3. Socata TBM 700 (cpsm $0.33 / base price k$407)

[7 PAX]
  1. Cessna 207 Stationair 8 (cpsm $0.24 / base price k$287)
  2. Aermacchi - Lockheed AL-60 (cpsm $0.24 / base price k$421)
  3. Gippsland GA8 Airvan (cpsm $0.27 / base price k$236)

[8 PAX]
  1. DeHavilland DHC-2 Beaver (cpsm $0.31 / base price k$210)
  2. Piaggio 180 Avanti (cpsm $0.35 / base price k$701)
  3. DeHavilland DH 89 Dragon Rapide (cpsm $0.36 / base price k$219)

[9 PAX]
  1. Noorduyn Norseman (cpsm $0.22 / base price k$332)
  2. Cessna 404 Titan (cpsm $0.25 / base price k$554)
  3. DeHavilland DH104 Dove (cpsm $0.33 / base price k$428)

[10 PAX]
  1. Pilatus PC-12 (cpsm $0.20 / base price k$763)
  2. Supermarine Walrus MK 1 (cpsm $0.28 / base price k$332)
  3. Cessna 441 Conquest II (cpsm $0.32 / base price k$696)

If you're interested in data around all 327 aircraft types currently available in FSE, stay tuned - I will publish the full list with all data, details, and assumptions taken so you can dig into it yourself.

Cheers
Jesco

P. S. final words: I do not plead for buying too esoteric models just because they're winners in a category. Let's look at models that are actually available for FSX, P3D and XP, so everyone can enjoy flying them...
 
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