Earlier, Eric Greenwell

Having the exterior wing shape defined
would save very little in design costs
because they would all require substantial
aerodynamic design and the complete
structural design, which is even more
expensive than the aerodynamic design...

Eric, you know I disagree that these are huge expenses. I continue to
believe that with modern softwares, and using modern
commercially-available composite products, that sailplane development
is within the grasp of a conscientious amateur.

Sure, DG says it costs them $1 million (say it in Mike Meyers' Dr.
Evil voice for best effect) to design, develop, and validate a new
sailplane. But factored into that is a lot of uncertainty and risk
that it takes to push the envelope with a new and competitive
high-performance design. And also a lot of business expenses and
overhead.

The optimist says the glass is half full. The pessimist says the glass
is half empty. The reengineer says, hey, we've got twice as much glass
as we need here, how much did we spend on that?

Thanks again, Bob K.