Columbia/Cessna 300/400 Series

摘要

Of course buyers shopping the used high-performance, fixed-gear composite piston-single market will look hard at the Cirrus SR22. But also worth a look are the 300- and 400-series singles. While these niche aircraft have timeless modern styling and good cockpit ergonomics, even the latest model in the line, the Cessna TTx (there were four name changes over time), is now six years out of production. But no matter the vintage, owners like these go-places singles for speed, handling and high-altitude efficiency. In a strong market at the tail end of 2023, models with no damage and recent engine swaps are premium priced. Flash back to around 2000 where the general design started life as a Lancair Columbia 300-a certified model from experimental kit manufacturer Lancair. Equipped with a normally aspirated 310-HP Continental IO-550N powerplant, the earliest Columbia 300 (officially a model LC40) had a list price somewhere around $340,000. Today, the current Fall 2023 Aircraft Bluebook puts the same airplane in the $300,000 price range, and good ones sell for more. The turbocharged fire-breathing Columbia LC41-550FG/400 with a six-cylinder Continental TSIO-550-C engine came out around 2004 and had a glass cockpit developed in part on NASA's own Columbia 300. Worth mentioning is that long before even the LC40 model arrived, NASA launched AGATE in 1994, which was designed to breathe life into a deflated general aviation market. That integrated avionics panel was incorporated into the 300 airframe/engine combination, which became the LC42-550FG, or Columbia 350, type certificated in March 2003.