There is nothing preventing anyone in the US from doing this, except
available money, time, minuscule market, etc. I (and others) could hack
together a prototype using off the shelf components in a few months, but
that would still be months of effort (and tens of thousands of dollars)
short of being a production device. Perhaps someone will be willing do
this all for the love of soaring (like the FLARM folks did), but they
certainly won't be doing to to make a profit. You got $50,000 to
$100,000? I can find someone to design it.

Yes, we're talking a really hot market, maybe as much as 500 units over
the next 5 years. And, you can get those sales if it is priced "right"
in glider pilot terms, which means essentially no profit. I expect
someone will jump in there any day now...

Marc, by your math (admittedly back of the envelope), if 200 glider
pilots each chipped in $500, someone could design it? I know nothing
about the costs of production of such a device, but say (worst case)
another $500 per unit? So for a grand those pilots would have a
working system. That's in my price range...

The obvious problem, of course, is that it only works if those 200
pilots all fly in the same area - so you have to convince the rest of
the glider pilots in the local area (or racing scene) to pony up the
$500 to get one. Or wait! Get SRA to make it optionally mandatory at
SSA sanctionned contests! Worked for ELTs! Maybe make a bunch of them
and rent them to pilots at contests? A couple of avoided collisions
and I bet there would be increased interest in the device by a lot of
glider pilots.

The point is - I see lots of guys sticking expensive transponders in
their ships which (in my opinion) provide little protection from most
mid-air collision threats, while there is little being done in
exploiting more useful avenues.

Perhaps a market for flight schools, that have a lot of power trainers
working VFR in busy airspace? (again - all xponder equipped but no TCAS
or warning by ATC if not on ATC freq).

Just saying it can't be done guarantees it won't be done. And just
thinking/talking about it doesn't make it happen, I know - but you have
to start somewhere.

Cheers,

Kirk