Inside The $700,000 Cessna 421 Golden Eagle Plane

This is the Cessna 421 Golden Eagle, the aircraft that stands at the head of Cessna's 400series piston twins. It’s roomy and relatively quiet, fast and efficient. Performance approaches that of some turboprops, but purchase and operating costs are considerably lower, though still considerable, they only look good when compared to propjets.
The 421, which shares its basic airframe with most of the other 400series Cessna twins, was introduced in 1968. Cessna aimed it at buyers who wanted better carrying capacity and performance than other piston twins offered, but who were put off by the high cost of turboprops.
To get the performance these buyers were looking for, Cessna decided to use Continental GTSIO520 geared engines producing a healthy 375 horsepower apiece. That's nearly threequarters of a horsepower per cubic inch, and the inevitable stress meant short service life. Originally, the TBO was a mere 1200 hours. Later engines sported heavier crankcases that increased TBO to a stilllow 1600 hours.
The airplane was an immediate hit, with 200 sold that first year. Clearly, the Golden Eagle was something the market was looking for. As is common, refinements were immediately applied, and Cessna produced the A, B, and C variants. The C model was produced, relatively unchanged, for 9 years. In 1985 it, like all the other piston Cessnas, was discontinued for lack of sales. Overall, the 4212C represents about half of the production run of 1920 aircraft. But how does it compare to other aircraft in its class?
The purchase price for a used Cessna 421 is $300,000 to $700,000, and while the annual fixed cost is estimated at $40,000 to $60,000, the average hourly operating cost is estimated at $400 to $600.
Here is everything you need to know about the Cessna 421 Golden Eagle.

TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
1:49 Cabin
3:49 Cockpit
6:38 Engine, Performance Specs, and Flying Experience
10:45 Purchase Price and Operating Cost
11:04 Outro

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