C.D.Damron wrote:
"Dennis Fetters" wrote in message
. com...

If you had some real-earth experience in what you were saying, then you
would not be saying it.


You don't have to design and market a helicopter to understand that you
should probably design and test your product adequately before selling it.


No you don't... if you don't care if you succeed or not. The kitbuilt
industry tests as much as it can afford before shipping product. If it
were not for advanced sales, there would be no kitbuilt industry.
Advanced sales is what any new kitbuilt company relies on to develop and
manufacture their product. It is a fact of the industry. RHCI tested
even more than most companies tested, and we continued testing until the
day we closed.


Call me old fashioned, but that is how I think it should be done, especially
if lives are at stake.

You are old fashion...... So am I. I think that is the way it should be
done too. But, nothing moves without the money. If you want an
alternative to certified aviation which offers kit aircraft at low
prices, then the only solution is advanced sales, and less non-certified
test time.

C.D., think about it..... If a company that wants to setup and
manufacture a helicopter spent 2 years to design and develop the
aircraft, how much will it cost?

Well, if it has only 5 employees and a moderate sized building, they
would spend about $400,000 in wages alone, and about $60,000 on renting
and fixed overhead. Cost of equipment will be around $25,000. Material
and parts will be around $50,000, if you're lucky. If you don't crash
the first flight or make any costly mistakes, you just spent $535,000,
and now you have something that just flew today.

Take another year and a half to test and modify, while your setting up
production tooling and building parts to reach a goal of shipping 5 kits
weekly, you will spend another $300,000 in wages, $45,000 in rent and
fixed overhead, and maybe another $20,000 in modifications, if you're
lucky. You just spent another $365,000, totaling $900,000 and you
haven't shipped nothing yet.

Now you are ready to ship, but wait, what about the parts to ship? They
were not for free! To end up with only 50 aircraft sitting on the
shelves, a mire 10 weeks worth of inventory to ship, you had to spend
around $1,050,000. What, you think the vendors were going to let you pay
later? HAH!!!

One other thing. You can't put 50 aircraft worth of parts on the shelves
with only 5 people in a modest sized shop. It takes a factory of around
52 people and 24,000 sq. ft. You had to hire, train and pay these people
over the last 4 months. With an average shop wage of only $30,000 a
year, rent of around $16,000 and around $40,000 to outfit the building.
That last 4 months just cost you $576,000.

So, here we are, shipping our fist aircraft today that we sold for
$28,000!!! You have invested $2,526,000.

Wait, lets step back to when we had only 5 employees and a modest sized
shop, where you were spending only $267,500 a year. Now you want to test
for 2000 hours after you spent $535,000 just to get where you can fly
something. If you fly 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, you can log 1,300
hours in a year. So at this rate, you will take 19 months, say 2 years
because you have to disassemble and inspect every 50 hours. Lets say you
don't crash of even have to redesign anything. BANG!! You just spent
another $535,000 and got away cheep.

So, you got 2000 hours of testing under your belt at a cost of
$1,070,000. Now you're ready to sell something, or are you one of these
type of people that would start selling something before you had a
factory to produce it with??

C.D., if you don't think these numbers are real, then go out there and
do it yourself, and see.

Yes, we're old fashion, you and I. The big difference between us is,
I've done the above, and you have not.

We live in the real world, and people that have not designed and
manufactured their own helicopter could never comprehend what it takes
to do so. You may think you do, wish you did, but you don't, yet you so
easily judge.


Dennis Fetters

Designer of;
Air Command 1/plcs Gyroplanes
Air Command 2/plcs Gyroplanes
Mini-500 1/Plcs Helicopter
Voyager-500 2/Plcs Helicopter
Excalibur 5/Plcs Turbine Helicopter
Star-Lite-A VTUAV Helicopter
Star-Lite-B VTUAV Helicopter