At 23:27 02 February 2009, Michel Talon wrote:

By the way, how many glider factories went bust? Similarly how many
of these car builders who wanted to produce luxury sports cars are
alive? Bugatti does airplane parts nowadays, similarly Hispano-Suiza,
etc.

Well, your own counter-example is Ferrari. And then there's Lamborghini,
Maserati, Aston-Martin and Bently. Personally, I'm glad there are folks
who can afford to buy those cars and run them on the roads, so I get to
see them. Although I have no realistic hope to ever own one.

One difference I see in sailplanes is that the continual push to build and
sell the latest and greatest performance model feeds the market in used
gliders that the rest of us can eventually aspire to own.

Jim Beckman