On Apr 1, 12:52*pm, Grider Pirate wrote:

I don't think China is going to be much intested in producing gliders
because the market it so small.

I agree with you that I don't see any *glider-only* companies
emerge.

But there are companies in China that are already in the business of
producing molded composites (R/C airplanes, LSAs, composite sub-
assemblies for various industries, etc). A company in this business
could build some gliders as a way to diversify their product offerings
and fill gaps in their production schedules (for example, if an LSA
manufacturer there isn't running at full capacity).

Chinese labor statistics are hard to come by, but one BLS study in
2006 (http://www.allbusiness.com/manufacturing/4004559-1.html) pegged
the aggregate labor rate at $0.67/hour. Even if that has tripled to
around $2/hour, that's still a HUGE cost-savings over other labor
markets. Sure, a bunch of your money is eaten up dealing with Chinese
governmental issues, corruption, export law issues, shipping ,etc...
But I bet it is still a cheaper solution overall. If its just a "part-
time" operation for a manufacturer there who's already engaged in
similar work (therefore having many of the tools and labor skills
already at-hand), I would bet that you could set a good enough profit-
margin for the manufacturer to make it worthwhile to produce 10 - 30
gliders per year; yet still represent a decent cost-savings over
existing gliders. Whether the savings is ENOUGH to convince people to
buy the glider is the big question. Its been tough for glider
manufacturers to sell less-than-cutting-edge gliders (people seem to
prefer to buy used equipment that's perceived as having top-notch
performance); but the question is whether this issue is a result of
the price difference not being big enough, or whether the market
simply won't support a "non-competitive" new glider at any reasonable
price.

OK, enough rambling for now...
[Can you guess who's taking a long lunch today?]

--Noel