> The aircraft may be a very good design with excellent aerodynamics but the
> manufacturing quality is about on a par with, say, MG and Triumph and other
> marques no longer seen in the US (for good reason). As I have said before,
> Europa's manufacturing QA leaves a bit to be desired, perhaps that is the
> real reason that Liberty will be contracting with Scaled Technology Works to
> manufacture a certificated aircraft (I personally doubt that Europa could
> ever get a manufacturing certificate).
It's always a dilemma with a new kit to decide on how sophisticated the
manufacturing should be: if they had known how many they would sell, they might
have put more money into it up front - hence the later kits are a great deal
better
than the early ones - but having seen a great many kits in my time, it's better
than the average American one (the Lancair 2 seaters - apart from having
positively
dangerous handling characteristics at low speed - weren't anything to write home
about) The very best -even up against the likes of the Christen Eagle and the
Glastar- are the French ones: at the risk of making Jerry's day, the Banbi kit
is,
in my opinion, the benchmark in quality. (but they still don't handle as well as
the Europa)
As for old brit sports cars... having had something to do with them at one time,
we
always regarded MG and Triumph to be something of womens sports cars and
wouldn't
have one in the house - if you wanted a proper one, you went out and got a
Healey,
or a Jag, or an AC, or a .....
I believe that the reason the Liberty deal went to the US was that the potential
backers/manufacturers here (just down the road from me, as it happens) wouldn't
commit - and a better deal came along. I suspect that the metal bits may still
be
made here...
Miles
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