US Dollar sinks to new low against Euro

Stewart Kissel wrote:

http://www.scaled.com/projects/globalflyer.html

Well if anyone out there in ras world is a buddy of
Rutan...I suspect he might make some terrific sailplanes
if he set his mind to it. For some reason I suspect
the very limited market would not be of much interest
to him

It's not that - he just isn't a production company. How many
round-the-world airplanes or Spaceship Ones do you think he expects to
sell? I suspect he wouldn't be interested in it, even if you brought a
pile of money to pay for a design, because it's not as interesting as
the stuff he's already working on.

--
Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly

Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA

Actually, Burt Rutan already designed and marketed a self launching
sailplane called the Solitaire, 20 years or so ago.

http://www.rutanaircraft.com/htmlpages/orderform.html Photo, 2/3 down the
page.

I was quite excited about it at the time, but it did not turn out to be very
successful -- too short span, too high wing loading, optimized for higher
speeds, poor thermalling performance. It was quietly dropped from plans
sales by RAF.
-Bob Korves

"Stewart Kissel" wrote in
message ...
http://www.scaled.com/projects/globalflyer.html

Well if anyone out there in ras world is a buddy of
Rutan...I suspect he might make some terrific sailplanes
if he set his mind to it. For some reason I suspect
the very limited market would not be of much interest
to him


Economic models would suggest a strong incentive for
sailplane
manufacture in North America, but I wonder if the
numbers of potential
sales would justify this.

Any thoughts?

You can't fly your friends in a PW6. They will be
to busy laughing at you.




At 01:06 07 November 2004, Charles Yeates wrote:
Good news -- but you could buy a PW-6U two-seater for
41,200 Euro and
have the pleasure of flying friends, eh?

Talking about the LS-4b: It's back in production (by
Walter Eisele, a
well-known german glider pilot), now called LS-4/2005.

Price is 39.400 Euro, complete with retractable gear
and water bags.
Winglets are optional.

Lots of bang for the buck if you ask me.



Bye
Andreas

U¿ytkownik "Mike Hessington"
napisa³ w wiadomo¶ci ...
You can't fly your friends in a PW6. They will be
to busy laughing at you.

But You may leave them behind with an SZD-55 (and still with 4500Euro in
pocket to buy them an evening beer which will improve their mood). :P


--
Janusz Kesik
Poland

-------------------------------------
See Wroclaw (Breslau) in photography,
The XIX Century, the Festung Breslau, and photos taken today.
http://www.wroclaw.dolny.slask.pl

The SZD55 is almost identical in performance to a Discus
1. Build quality on the originals was not as good
as the LS4 but perhaps the new builds are higher quality.

The handling was not as good as the LS4 (but nothing
touches an LS4 for handling) and the fuse looks like
it's been beaten with the Jantar ugly stick.

All in all, very good bang for buck. The only real
problem is that it isn't competitive in any competition
class right now. It's too hot for the club class and
can't quite foot it with LS8s and D2s. I guess that
will change over time.

Mike.


At 15:24 07 November 2004, Michel Talon wrote:
Janusz Kesik wrote:

SZD-55, also back in production, but much more modern
design than LS-4 (some
ten years younger)

Meaning what exactly in terms of L/D, ease of use,
build quality etc.
Seriously, i have never seen a SZD-55 i have no a priori.

Lots of bang for a buck, isn't it?


Depends on the answer to the above question. I know
for sure the LS4
is an excellent glider. I know nothing about the polish
one.

--

Michel TALON

Mike Hessington wrote:
(but nothing touches an LS4 for handling)

Hmmm, Discus2?

/Jancsika

Earlier, Stewart Kissel
wrote:

...I suspect he might make some terrific sailplanes
if he set his mind to it...

Well, considering the Solitaire motorglider, his last contribution to
the world of soaring, I'd have to entertain some doubts.

Not that I don't think he could, as you say, make terrific sailplanes.
Just that I don't think he'd be inclined to play the incremental game
of quarter-percentages that modern sailplane development seems to have
become.

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24
*now under glass*

Eric Greenwell wrote:
...
And if the US$ continues to sink, maybe some of these will find their
way to Europe. We'll have to sell boatloads to make up for our trade
imbalance, though.


Nope, since they don't meet the criteria for being certified and there is
no category like "expereimental' in tha US, and anyway the cost and length
of the certification process would probably discourage the manufacturer to
attempt it.

"Bob Kuykendall" wrote in message
om...
Earlier, Stewart Kissel
wrote:

...I suspect he might make some terrific sailplanes
if he set his mind to it...

Well, considering the Solitaire motorglider, his last contribution to
the world of soaring, I'd have to entertain some doubts.

Not that I don't think he could, as you say, make terrific sailplanes.
Just that I don't think he'd be inclined to play the incremental game
of quarter-percentages that modern sailplane development seems to have
become.

Bob K.
http://www.hpaircraft.com/hp-24
*now under glass*

It seems the aerodynamics of gliders has reached a point of near perfection
where further performance increases are likely to be very small.

Where I wish the designers would concentrate now is in the area of processes
and materials where reductions in manufacturing costs might be realized. A
breakthrough here would have large impact on the sport.

Bill Daniels

Stewart Kissel wrote in message ...
http://www.scaled.com/projects/globalflyer.html

Well if anyone out there in ras world is a buddy of
Rutan...I suspect he might make some terrific sailplanes
if he set his mind to it. For some reason I suspect
the very limited market would not be of much interest
to him

Actually, Rutan's track record for sailplanes is pretty bad - his
Solitaire self-launch glider won the SSA/SHA (?) contest, but turned
out to be a lousy sailplane due to it's canard configuration -
couldn't thermal slow enough (a simplification of the problem with
using canards at high Cls).

Butt-ugly, too; makes a PW-5 look beautiful in comparison!

I must be the only guy who thinks Rutan's designs are ugly and
over-optimized. But they do work exceptionally well at their design
missions, and one cannot argue with success!

Kirk