Diamond Aircraft Sold!

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thefoxx
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by thefoxx »

Here's the release from Diamond Canada: https://copanational.org/en/2017/12/28/ ... r-2017XXXX

Diamond Aircraft Canada is now wholly owned by a large Chinese transportation company and CEO Peter Maurer said that will be good for the company as a whole. Wanfeng Aviation bought 60 percent of Diamond Canada a year ago, leaving the other 40 percent in the hands of Diamond Austria, which was controlled by founder Christian Dries. Just before Christmas, Wanfeng bought the Austrian holdings taking full control of both arms of the company. “Everything is under one umbrella and that’s very positive,” Peter Maurer, CEO of Diamond Aircraft Canada, told the CBC. “We’re currently at 180 employees and we expect to go to 300 by December 2018.”

Meanwhile, the company has completed Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA) certification on the DA62 seven-seat twin diesel and diesel version of the DA40 single, both of which are made at the London plant. Wanfeng said it plans to increase production and global distribution under its new CEO Bin Chen, who praised the company’s progress under Dries’ leadership. “Based on this excellent foundation, we intend to take Diamond to a long term leadership position in worldwide general aviation,” he said. Dries said he wanted the company to be sold to an entity that would invest in its growth. “I look forward to seeing Diamond develop further and based on our successful year long partnership in Diamond Canada, I am fully satisfied that I leave Diamond in very good hands,” Dries said.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Tommy »

So, do you believe what Diamond Canada has released? Remember, this is not the Canadian's speaking, it's not the Austrian's, it's the new Chinese ownership. What is their history with American aviation related acquisitions? What have their actions been? I'm just asking the questions? No, I don't believe everything I read, I only believe in actions and behavioral history.
Absolutely no mention of the DA50 at all, or any other products (D Jet) that may be in the pipeline.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Colin »

If I were Diamond I would cancel the D-Jet. Based on the Cirrus and history of the Citation Mustang, I don't see the market justifying the development and support costs. I think a King Air killer would be a better bet, although Cessna just released the first images of a strange King Air wannabe and apparently already have a bunch of orders.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Tommy »

Diamond said last year when they sold to the Chinese that the funding influx would help continue development of the D Jet. You haven't seen that since that statement was made, have you?
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Chris »

Tommy wrote:I only believe in actions and behavioral history.
Absolutely no mention of the DA50 at all, or any other products (D Jet) that may be in the pipeline.
This article says that "work will continue on new Diamond models, including the diesel-powered, five-seat DA50 and the Dart turboprop military trainer."

There is a passing reference to the D-Jet in this other article, but it's not clear when the quote was made and it only says "If Cirrus has significant success, that might increase interest in our [D-Jet]".

I expect the jet will continue to be mothballed until there's proof that there's a market for it. Hopefully the DA50 will make it. Time will tell.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by H60 pilot »

I think Eastern capital in North American GA has provided a palpable benefit. To rename a few that have excelled since their Chinese acquisition: Cirrus continues to own the GA market through purposeful evolution of their SR fleet and Vision Jet certificate achievement; Mooney not only still has the shop lights on, they've recently achieved certification for two of arguably the best aircraft the brand has ever produced; Piper has redefined their fleet with the M-class, bringing desirable enhancements and range topping M600 to the market; Continental has become the largest piston engine manufacturer and parts supplier in the business, spark ignition, diesel or otherwise. I honestly haven't seen a single downside to Chinese capital in the West, I'm sure examples could be made, I'm just currently unaware of them.

I hope to God Diamond's new management buries the D-Jet program well beneath the Earth where it belongs. I believe the company needs to focus on gaining penetration in the existing markets they compete. YTD: 34x SR20, 45x PA28 and 75x 172 were sold against Diamond's 54x DA20/40 in the entry level/training market?! Or 13x PA34/44, 28x P006T, 13x G58 against Diamond's 53x twins? And of course Diamond is a non-player in the 285x aircraft sold, high performance single market. I believe a range topping FADEC 350hp, retractable, pressurized, composite single would redefine this segment. *nudge nudge Diamond*

Admittedly, Diamond owns a respectful amount (50%) of the multi-engine share. And so they should, 100% of their concerted effort has been to build and certify new and improved twin engine models in a category GA has largely abandoned. If Diamond invested 1/3 of the capital sunk in the D-Jet into their existing single engine fleet instead, I theorize they would likely double these sales.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by pietromarx »

Mick - I agree with all of your points and would also add that we should expect to see more innovation and more worldwide distribution of Diamond's products. The emerging markets in most advanced products are growing at far faster rates than either Europe or NA. On the innovation side Diamond has done well, but to my mind there is a lot more to do.

All of the things suggested above simply require capital and direction, both of which I would expect to see going forward. Let's just hope that NA and Europe don't end up being forgotten markets.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by CFIDave »

Tommy wrote:CFIDave has been unusually quiet about this sale. If anyone would know of details regarding this transaction he would. What's going on Dave?
I don't have much to add beyond what's already been reported here. As a product specialist who works for a Diamond distributor, I prefer to present facts rather than offer opinions here on the forum, in an attempt to be helpful.

But here's my 100,000-foot view of the ownership change: Diamond's corporate "culture" not surprisingly has been driven by Christian Dries, who as CEO and representative of the owning Dries family, has created a strong track record of product innovation. This has resulted in an outstanding series of modern aircraft that we as owners and pilots love to fly.

During Christian's long tenure as CEO, Diamond has arguably produced the most technologically-advanced piston aircraft available, while simultaneously maintaining one of the best safety records in all of GA. Because the company has been privately held, Diamond hasn't had to answer to typical shareholders demanding short-term profits, which has given Christian and his engineering team more flexibility to pursue innovative projects like development of auto-land systems, electric/hybrid aircraft, diesel engines based on automotive technology, etc.

But with the Dries family leaving the company to new Chinese owners, will Diamond's history of innovation continue? In the near-term, the company has plenty of very promising new products in its development and certification pipeline, such as multiple versions of the DA50 and the turboprop DART aircraft. It's probably too soon to know what the change of ownership may have on longer-term aircraft innovation.

Perhaps a bigger unknown is whether the change in ownership will affect other elements of the company's operations such as marketing, sales and distribution strategies, ramp-up of production, aircraft maintenance, and customer support. The new Chinese owners have an opportunity to pay as much attention to these critical functions as to new product innovation, all of which will contribute to the success of Diamond going forward.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Tommy »

Thanks Dave, that's what I was waiting for. You for obvious reasons have greater insight into this sale both short and long term outlook. Your opinion carries a lot of weight and is quite different than others outside the Diamond sphere.
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Re: Diamond Aircraft Sold!

Post by Keith M »

CFIDave wrote:Diamond hasn't had to answer to typical shareholders demanding short-term profits, which has given Christian and his engineering team more flexibility to pursue innovative projects like development of auto-land systems, electric/hybrid aircraft, diesel engines based on automotive technology, etc.
Innovation is all very well, but how much of that has actually reached the marketplace? The diesel engine innovation was undertaken by Thielert. Diamond could have taken that forward when Thielert went bankrupt, but chose instead to go down a blind alley with that lump of iron, the Austro engine. Increasing the stall speed of the DA40 by 11% does nothing to enhance its reputation for safety.

Christian Dries never tried to develop a relationship with his customers, abandoning them as soon as the cash was handed over. An extreme example of this is that to get a software upgrade for the G1000 in a DA40D, he expected you to buy a new aircraft. In consequence, even though the aircraft are great to fly, word soon got around that Diamond were not a great company to do business with - even ignoring the Thielert debacle. And, unlike Cirrus, they didn't put an improvement programme in place, to encourage satisfied customers to upgrade to the latest model, as people do with cars. Instead, once a market was saturated (relatively), they went after business in new countries, such as Russia, while devoting their development resources to the next new and shiny thing, which often came to naught.

I wish the new owners well, with the hope they are more customer oriented.
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