To most, the owning your own aircraft is something reserved only for the richest of the rich and your wildest dreams. But this is not always the case, some planes are considerably cheaper than others. So what are the cheapest planes to both buy and fly?
As you probably guessed, going down the route of buying on price means you will have to forgo brand new planes in favor of used models, which are typically quite old but nonetheless still as good as they day they rolled off the factory floor.
For the purposes of this article, we will look at the two cheapest aircraft in all categories of aircraft you might find in the ownership of a typical pilot.
Ultralight
1100R Mini-Max – $10,000
Airbike LS – $11,000
Single Engine Piston
Cessna 150 – $25,000
The fifth most produced aircraft ever, it is perhaps no surprise that the Cessna 150 is among the cheapest planes in our skies, after all Cessna produced almost 24,000 of them over a course of almost 30 years.
Among the many reasons the Cessna 150 was – and remains – so successful was its price. In 1958 , the price of a new Cessna 150 was only $6,995, or roughly $69,600 in today’s dollars, a price much lower than many of its competitors.
Combined with its simplicity, ease of handling and better specs, it didn’t much for pilots the world over to purchase the Cessna 150.
Fast forward six and a half decades, most of them are still in circulation and surprisingly good condition given their age. Due to just the sheer volume of them, there are always dozens of Cessna 150s up for sale at any one time.
Though you can easily pay more for a slightly newer or higher spec model, the cheapest Cessna 150s currently sell for between $25,000 and $27,500 depending on the individual aircraft.
Similarly, the Cessna 150 is extremely cheap to operate, costing only around $45 per hour to operate at average fuel prices.
On a related note, when Cessna ceased production of the Cessna 150 in 1977, they began producing an updated derivative known as the Cessna 152, which also shares its predecessors’ cheapness, costing as little as $30,000 to buy and about $50 per hour to operate.
ERCO Ercoupe – $29,900
Twin Engine Piston
Cessna 320 – $55,000
Beechcraft Baron – $59,900
Singe Engine Turboprop
Pilatus PC-9 – $445,000
Lancair Propjet – $600,000
Twin Engine Turboprop
Mitsubishi MU-2 – $299,000
The first commercial aircraft developed by Mitsubishi following WWII, the MU-2 was designed to carry up to 12 passengers (depending on configuration) over a range of 2,334 km (1,450 mi).
A favorite of civil and military pilots alike, one of the MU-2’s main selling points was its comparatively low operating costs. Where rival turboprops cost anywhere from $1,400 to $1,650 per hour per hour, the MU-2 costs only $1,326 per hour – a significant discount.
Knowing that the MU-2’s much cheaper operating costs would entice cheaper to operate, as well as higher production costs, Mitsubishi gave the MU-2 a $1.9 million price tag, making it noticeably more expensive than the $1.2 million average of its competitors.
Today, however, this is not the case as much. Thanks to the market being flooded by retired military models, as well as the pre-existing market for civil ones, the price of used MU-2s has decreased considerably.
Currently, you can pick up a used MU-2 for as low as $299,000 whilst slightly newer models can go for as much as $350,000. A bargain to most pilots.
Beechcraft King Air 90 – $325,000
Private Jet
Cessna Citation II – $475,000
In an attempt to capitalize on the immense success of the Citation I released in 1971