On Jan 24, 10:39*am, Bob Kuykendall wrote:
...Potentially, there are huge economies of scale
if the production run is large enough...

Yeah, potentially so. But the curve seems to be fairly flat in the
region of most glider production runs. You'd just about have to double
the size of the worldwide fleet in five years or so before you see a
really meaningful price reduction. Not that that isn't possible, just
that it isn't all that likely given the way we're doing things today.

Personally, I'd like to see a new 12m class that replaces the World
Class. A while back I did a preliminary design of a set of carbon
fiber wings for Monerai for a friend, and the costs and panel weights
look pretty attractive. It'd be fun to make a nice fuselage for those
wings to suit smallish pilots and toss a few into the air.

Thanks, Bob K.

I've been flying a sub-15m ship for almost 10 years now. First a
Russia AC-4C, and presently an Apis-13. While I really like the light
weight of the ship, I do jones for a bit more performance, I think if
a sub-15m ship could get an honest 40:1, it would be met with
enthusiasm.

Brad