That's right. But, imagine the cost to keep a 1974 182 airworthy over the last 50 years. I'd wager it would be pretty darn close to 1/2 million dollars. Add in the avionics upgrades, and it's a lot more.
What's my point? I'm not sure. But it's interesting to think about.
Unless there was some sort of accident, I doubt it's quite
that high. I'll take a SWAG at some very rough numbers.
Let's say the 50-year-old plane has had two major overhauls. That's maybe $60k-$70k in 2024 dollars. Say the annuals have averaged $2k, so 50 years is $100k. Add in a few big ticket items, like a major repair or two and a new radio, and maybe there's another $50k, so we're around $210k. $4.2k per year.
Suppose a pilot decides to buy a plane. A new one might cost him half a million, and ten years later he can sell it for about half that. Plus he's incurred maintenance costs all along, just like the guy with a new plane, but maybe they've run a bit less, so let's SWAG $3.5k per year instead of $4.2k.
Or, he can buy the 50-year-old plane for, say, $100k and spend $4.2k per year maintaining it. Ten years later he can sell it for what it cost him, roughly, as it was fully depreciated when he bought it.
So the cost of 10 years of flying will be $285k with the new plane (most of the hit being depreciation), or $42k to fly the old plane.
Very rough numbers, of course, but they illustrate the nature of the problem. The new plane won't have significantly better performance than the old one (and might have less). Plus, the owner of the old plane can choose to pour some of his savings into a refresh and have a vehicle that's almost as nice as the brand new one.
When you do a little cost analysis, it's pretty difficult for the typical weekend pilot to justify a new plane. New planes make more sense for commercial use, like flight schools or charter operations, and when they decide to sell there's plenty of demand for their used planes.
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