Club Homepage Forums Classified Ads Buy & Sell - Everything But Airplanes No more 152's from Cessna

I attended an FAA conference in Wichita and had an opportunity to speak with a Cessna engineer. I asked him if there was any chance that the 152 would come back into production? His answer was what I suspected and what mort of you might already know.

Cessna will never bring the 152 back because:

1. It would cost Cessna nearly as much to produce the 152 as it does the 172, and would have to charge close to the current 172 price to just break even. The 172 lost money the first few years of production and barely makes a profit now.

2. The 152's useful load is not suitable anymore for today's heavier pilots. Even with the IO-240 with FADEC, the design just cannot heft much more weight then it now can.

3. The 152 cannot compete with the other two place machines out there (Katana, Liberty, etc) or the new sport category aircraft.

So, take good care of the 150's and 152's now flying; there won't be any more.

I've heard that before. And it does make sense, to a point. The 152 was a good plane, but Cessna seems to think that they have taken it to its limits. In order to produce a good two seater for the training and personal aircraft market, they would probably have to start from the ground up. And given the costs to get it certified, it would take years to recoup those costs.

You're right, the 152 has a useful load about the same as most LSAs. It has a better useful load than some and not as much as others. But it would be the price that Cessna would have a hard time competing with.