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Troy had gone this route already. I personally think that spending all that money to laser cut ribs to the exact shape is a waste of money. It is so difficult to keep the shape absolutely perfect during the assembly. A jig & a router will be just as effective as a laser cutter in this instance. Save your money.
If you were interested in making a kit, you should consider making the assembly jigs instead. The jigs are where you need that kind of accuracy. I personnaly would have bought laser cut jigs that can be used to route the webbing, and assemble the ribs.
A while back, I got a quote from Neil Good for DVII wings, he wanted about $40,000. At the time, I thought it was insane. Now, after estimating the cost of the materials, using double the material cost to estimate labor, then add shipping to the cost ... $40, 000 is not too far off the mark. Neil has made several sets of DVII and other wings, and I believe he knows what he is doing!
The other things you need to factor into, when building the wings, is the knowledge gained by making a few sets. You end up wasting a lot of material figuring out the nuts & bolts of how to do it right. Having made some ribs myself, there are many issues that popped up while making them. Any mistakes, the builder has to eat financially.
Then there is the liability to consider. Yeah, the guy you are building the wings for accepts the risk, but his wife and kids might not if the wings fold in flight. As my wife said, you do these folks a favor and make them wings at a great price, and if anything goes wrong, we lose our house. That's is not a smart gamble. You need an A&P, lots of documentation, load testing of your work & several successful wings built to protect yourself from lawsuits. For a guy making oneies & twosies to make a buck, you really are hanging yourself out there.
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Jeff Brooks
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