Planned obsolescence
Quite a few people commented on last week’s strip that it’s not as impossible to track down ancient plane parts as we made it out to be in the comic. Well, that might be the case! It would not be the first time that we’d sacrifice historical or technical accuracy for a cheap laugh. But on the subject of today’s strip: Is there something like planned obsolescence in aviation? I’m sure the fastest moving sector is everything related to navigation, electronics, tablets and all that jazz. But I assume that most things in the industry are designed to be backwards compatible in all sorts of ways. Or am I being naive?
Absolutely! Just try to get parts for a 10 year old Cirrus. They don’t make them anymore and you will have to pay a few hundred bucks plus the thousand dollar STC to install the new… switch.
Not making that up. Replacing flap switch on an early model Cirrus SR-20 is no longer supported by the factory and you have to use a new and poorly fitting switch instead.
This IS Chuck we’re talking about. Even the simplest things become complicated when he’s involved.
Of course there is. Garmin is one of the worst player at this game. Everything they do is supported 10 years max after they sold the first one. If yours break after this deadline, your only option is to replace it by another model. So not only you have to buy new stuff, but you have to go through the rewiring and installation of the new stuff in addition. Considering the price of the ubiquitous gns430 or worse, g1000, that’s just legal theft…
Cirrus are also good at that game. I could consider flying one, but for sure, never own one even if given for free…
Planned Obsolescence, and lack of long term support is just theft and a crime for the planet and should be punished by voiding all IPRs of the company selling such products : patents, trademarks, etc should be made public, so anyone could build spare parts or new units of the old make