Brad wrote:
The up-front tooling costs to use automated processes would be way to
costly, at least for a small company to bootstrap itself into this
biz. IMHO.

I'd say that a big part of the necessary innovation will be in figuring
out how to fabricate low cost equipment and tooling that can automate
some aspects of the production process without breaking the bank. Given
commodity availability of laser-based precision 3D locating devices,
servos and associated controllers, plus ubiquitous computers, the main
thing that seems to missing is rethinking the nature of the tooling one
uses for these processes.

By the way, one of the classic arguments against the PW-5 and similar
"low end" gliders, was that it was possible to obtain decent used
gliders with greater performance for the same price. Unfortunately (or
fortunately, if you have one to sell) here in the US the supply of
decent used gliders in the $20K to $30K range has pretty much dried up.
This appears to be due to a combination of market forces, as the sky
high price of new gliders has increased the demand and price for the 10
to 15 year old gliders that used to be the "bread and butter" of the
market. The owners of decent 15 to 20 year old gliders appear to be
holding onto what they have, as they can't be replaced for a reasonable
price. Plus, every US gliderport has a number of 25+ year old glass
gliders rotting in trailers, as it is no longer economical to refinish
them...

Marc