LS10 info

Here is a quote from the DG/LS web site...it is, in my humble opinion,
worrisome statement :

Economic aspects

Everyone knows that the approved certification of new models becomes
more and more expensive and the number of production planes will never
reach the quantities of the past.

The cost for developing the LS-10 will definitely be more than 500.000
Euros. This requires precise planning for a business like DG, to keep
the whole process at the lowest cost. This planning which we are doing
at this time will take much more time than we expected when we bought
LS.

End quote.

O'K.... the way I read this statement is, that gliders will be more and
more expensive and eventually this sport will be so expensive that only
very few and very rich people will be able to afford it. It is almost
identical to unlimited hydroplanes....during the 50's and 60's there
was a lots of boats, then we had a guy, who basically bought the sport
and in the 21st century this sport almost seized to exist. We are
flying nowadays old gliders. When I go to the glider port I see people
flying 20 and 30 + years old birds. Eventually those gliders will be
scraped. So, having said that, did anyone at this point in time thought
about what are we going to be flying 10 years from now? DG/LS is
selling gliders for $100 000 +....keep this in mind; a glider which
cost 57,000 Euros...that translates to about $70,000 US. Then you need
to buy a trailer, instruments, ship it across the Atlantic, pay your
taxes in your state. By the time you are done it is a $100,000 US + .
Do you think this kind of prices will attract new glider owners? Also,
at this time I think that SZD Bielsko gliders, LAK gliders, PW-5 and
PW-6, APIS, and some other manufacturers will not follow the
greedy/getting quickly rich/ rip you off business approach and they
will maintain the reasonable prices on the equipment they manufacture
presently. If they fall into the same category as the German
manufacturers then this, or I should say, our sport is in a danger of
extinction. With prices like that I think I'll buy me a Pitts again
and have quite a bit of fun as well. That is a price range that is
encroaching in "the good power range pricing".