On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 10:56:01 +0000 (UTC),
(Michel Talon) wrote:

If you don't benefit from this effect you have to sell cheaper or you
don't sell. Take an example, the French glider Pegase was an
excellent glider, very comparable to the LS4. It was 30% cheaper
than the LS4 still it was difficult to sell, to say the least.

I can't agree with you again...
Pegase was nothing else, as a copy of ASW-19, which was a good
construction. Pegase was not easy to sell, because it was not better
as the original. As Andreas Maurer noticed, it was sometimes even
worse...
The difficulty we have in our sweet France is, that government is
trying to push some companies (like Centrair) and this kind of
protection does not make entreprises stronger. It makes them even
weaker, and when the protection stops, they disappear. Centrair
stopped the production of gliders, because this company didn't have
good stuff, nor a good commercial behavior and was unable to sell
without special help (like a bulk order of the French Gliding
Federation) . Novaday they are subcontractors of Airbus, and I hope
they will perform better...
In the same time, a really excellent French construction, which is
Crystal, took 10 years to be certified ! Commercially speaking, it is
dead before to be born...
20 years earlier, you could see the same situation, when the French
administration pushed forward the construction of Wassmers Bijave
against the Breguets Choucas... with the same kind of result.

The real question, Michel, is : what is the stuff worth, what are its
advantages, or qualities, and not if it is German, French, Polish,
or... Lithuanian!
I fully agree with Andreas : only the competition can improve
products, and this statement concerns gliders as well...