Earlier, Lou wrote:

...
Aircraft should be one thing my country could
excel at. We have everything needed,
materials, knowledge, ability, and desire, but most every aircraft in
this category is either imported or the parts are imported and then
assembled here.

The very most expensive part of manufacturing most things is hourly
wages. So in parts of the globe where hourly wages are high, it's
expensive to make things unless your manufacturing processes are
extremely effecient and effective. Sure, the big Japanese car makers
can run car plants in the US with US workers. But observe that their
manufacturing processes are extremely, extremely effecient. It's
nothing at all like making the sort of things that sell at the low unit
numbers of aircraft and aviation products. Almost everybody's got a
car, but almost nobody owns an airplane.

Further, observe that a great deal of commercial aircraft inspection,
repair, modification, and maintenance has already been outsourced. Now
a lot of it is done in places like South America, Asia, and Eastern
Europe - places that have dedicated specialists combined with low
hourly wages. Yes, we've got everything we need to excel at aircraft
and aviation. But plenty of other countries do too, and many of them
have wage and class structures that makes the most expensive part of it
cheaper.

Thanks, and best regards to all

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24