DG's latest volley

And China just bought Hummer and Volvo..
made cheaply and fall apart quickly...
is in their future

wrote in message
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On a tangent -
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Given that glider manufacturing is a pretty labor-intensive process, I
wonder when the Chinese glider manufacturers are going to take off?
For awhile it seemed that affordable new gliders were coming from
Eastern Europe because of the depressed currencies and low labor
costs; but economic developments in those areas have changed the
equation. China is the logical "next place" for this activity, with
an abundance of cheap labor and the ability to ship out a product
globally. Some composite LSAs are now being built there and many
radio-controlled gliders are as well. Its only a hop, a skip, and a
jump from there to a Sailplane! The tough engineering work can be
done separate from the glider manufacturing itself. Frankly, I'm
surprised this isn't already happening (there may be a few limited
examples of it already occurring; but why isn't it more wide-spread?)

--Noel

So far China has a reputation of making junk when it come so somewhat
sophisticated items. Motorcycles come to mind. China has made
"clones" of many of the Japanese motorcycles and scooters. They cost
less, look good, but fall apart quickly. There is practically no way
to get them to make good on warranty. Spare parts are hard to get
too.

If there were such a thing, I would think long and hard about buing a
Chinese made glider.

I wonder how Cessna will do with their Chinese airplane?

For now I, when it comes to Chinese products, I will stick to Mardi
Gras Beads.......

Eastern Europe still has relatively low labor rates and a long history
of designing and building gliders. Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and
Russia seem like the most logical areas for design and low cost
production. I imagine that the profit margin for any LAK is much
greater than for a German sailplane. Still "China" won't become
involved in building gliders but a Chinese entrepreneur who is
interested in soaring could always start a company. If someone is
skilled in designing and building with fiberglass though, they would
be better advised building yachts. I suspect that the worldwide
market for sailplanes is pretty close to the market for yachts in
Montana.