[FabHK]

Very good question. Planes used to be so much cheaper, too.

I'm not an expert, but from what I gather there was this issue where product liability law suits drove aircraft manufacturers out of business. Even Cessna went bankrupt and was sold to Textron, and production of even the Cessna 172 stopped for a decade or so in the mid 80's.

The General Aviation Revitalization Act was supposed to fix this, not sure how much it has (see link at end).

Would love to hear more about this. Regulation is clearly a huge factor.

By the way, as much as one can complain about the general aviation scene in the USA (regulation, FAA, ...), on a global level it's still paradise. In Europe it's more complicated and expensive and cumbersome, even though the EASA is slowly moving in the right direction as far as I can tell. In Asia, general aviation is nearly unheard of. Australia has some, though it's really too big :-) Interestingly, Africa has pockets, e.g. in the south (South Africa, Namibia) and east (Kenya).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Aviation_Revitalizatio...