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Posted: Fri Feb 25, 2011 10:26 am
by Bill McCarthy
I quite often refer to an experimental aircraft website which is quite useful for design and materials sections. If you google "pilotfriend.com" it should take you there.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:01 pm
by Charles Scott
Nick Allen wrote: I'm not sure that's the only business model that works. Take your Thatcher, for example: Thatcher has sold to date 454 sets of plans @ $360 apiece = $163,440. That's really not bad -- he could have afforded a stress engineer out of that! :D
Even with the volumes that the Thatcher designs have sold, there is barely enough income to call this a full time job, let alone pay for a stress engineer or make an actual profit. He's made that money over 7 years so that's $23,350 a year. He's now in his late 70's so he was probably already financially sound and not relying on the income to feed the family.

Selling plans is probably a good way to supplement a pension, but even at US volumes it looks like a "get poor quick" scheme rather than a viable business model.

Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2011 4:41 pm
by Rob Swain
Charles Scott wrote:He's made that money over 7 years so that's $23,350 a year.
Point taken about not being a good basis for a business but it's a fantastic return on a hobby!

The Corby Starlet and Kestrel - Design background

Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 11:45 pm
by Hamish Mead
I just discovered an interesting article written by John Corby, designer of the CJ-1 Starlet and CM-2 Kestrel. It was published in SAANZ's magazine, Sport Flying earlier this year. It would be great to see it reprinted in Light Aviation for the benefit of a wider audience.

In the meantime you can download a pdf version of it from the SAANZ website here:
The Corby Starlet and Kestrel - Design background - by John Corby - Sport Flying Autumn 2011

Enjoy!