The Genesis 2 continued in production thru 2000 and
there may have
been one or two built in early 2001. If you look at
the US stock market
performance, most major companies peaked in early
2000 followed by
steady stock price declines through 2001. Stock prices
may have started
to rebound in late 2001; we'll never know because 9/11,
an anthrax
scare, smallpox worries and the crash of an Airbus
in New York caused a
multi-trillion dollar decline in travel and tourism
which reverberated
throughout the economy. This extended what would have
been a
relatively mild economic downturn into a mild downturn
that lasted a
very long time. I say it was mild because 6% was considered
full
employment until the mid eighties. Now, 6% unemployment
is
considered a recession in America. (In Europe, 6%
unemployment would
be called 'unprecedented prosperity a major economic
boom and proof
positive that socialism, high taxes and unrestricted
immigration works,'
but they'll never see a 6% unemployment rate, at least
not in western
Europe.) :-)
Anyway, people in America don't buy gliders if they
don't have a fair
amount of disposable income and it's hard to get a
lot of that when the
price of your stock went from eighty to ten. Production
of the Genesis
stopped, Rolladin-Schneider went belly up, more used
gliders were on
the market and most glider manufacturers went thru
some very hard
times. DG and Schemp-Hirth probably stayed in business
because of
deep pockets by owners - going out of business in Germany
can be more
expensive than staying in business - and purchases
by European gliding
clubs, not because of individual buyers.

Also, Clem Bowmans' accident had a very big effect.
There were a lot of
rumors that the Genesis didn't have automatic control
connections- it
does- and since it looks like a flying wing it should
somehow be able to
fly without an elevator - it won't. Had he continued
racing the Genesis 2
it probably would have been much more successful.





At 14:48 08 February 2007, wrote:
On Feb 8, 8:12 am, Tony Verhulst wrote:
Jack wrote:
Peter F wrote:
At 02:42 08 February 2007, Steve Davis wrote:
Discus 2 performance at a fraction of the cost.

That would be why there was so many flying at the
last
Std Class World Champs then..

41 Discus 2 A & B in the US

6 flew in 2006 Senior Contest, Seminole Lake Gliderport,
Florida

23 Genesis II in the US

2 flew in 2006 Senior Contest, Seminole Lake Gliderport,
Florida

That's a reasonable representation.

Sure, but the real question is (was) - if the Genesis
2 is as good as a
Discus 2, why aren't there more G2's?

Tony V.

Good question. I think there are a lot of variables
involved here.
For one, the G2 is an unorthodox design, and I think
we've seen that
in many different aircraft that tends to lead to low
production
numbers. Beech Starship comes to mind.

Clem Bowman's accident certainly must have had some
effect on
orders.
We will never know what would have happened had he
continued his
successful racing career in the G2.

Otherwise - there are plenty of designs that were
successful
sailplanes but had limited production runs. How about
the Sisu? The
number of units produced is not necessarily a good
metric of the
absolute value of a glider.

The G2 can be debated in a number of ways. Some people
just don't
like they way they look - fair enough. That's personal
taste. But if
you have a look at the numbers (and maybe even fly
one), I think the
reason for the low production number lies outside the
performance
realm and gets into the area of manufacturing issues.
My hat is off to
the people that worked hard to produce them.

Mike Brooks