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by rexf 1699 days ago
> A complete vehicle is 92 000 USD and is delivered to you as a partially (50%) assembled kit for home completion. It contains everything you need, from the aluminium space frame to motor controllers, propellers and motors. You will also receive detailed build instructions.

Seems odd to not deliver a fully assembled aircraft. Is there any regulatory reason? If cost is an issue, they could probably charge extra (such as $110K total) and deliver it fully assembled.

2 comments

If it's less than 51% assembled by the manufacturer it's classified as "home built" and the manufacturer assumes no liability in the event of a crash.
Wow very interesting. Curious if you have any source?
Thats not exactly right. It’s simply that you cannot sell something built >51% by the factory under experimental rules, you’d need to have it FAA certified which this isn’t ( for thousands of reasons ).

The 51% rule is extremely common in experimental aviation.

Can confirm [1], am building an aircraft in my garage. It's the only segment of general aviation that's growing as it does away with a lot of the arduous approval process for inconsequential modifications/maintenance. I don't mean this is some sort of libertarian crypto-utopia, the FAA has just lumped general aviation in with commercial operations where the passengers expect to have an absolute guarantee of an uneventful trip whereas GA is similar to driving your car. Realistically safety ranges from slightly better than car to slightly better than a motorcycle depending on how you work the numbers but it's important to note that mechanical issues are extremely rare in GA accidents, much like the auto world, it's almost entirely operator error. The FAA is, as a result, regulating GA aircraft into extinction as certifying new airframes is an absolute financial impossibility due to overhead costs. Even if the new craft are safer than the existing fleet they're prevented from entering service and it's causing a lot of issues.

[1] https://www.eaa.org/eaa/aircraft-building/builderresources/g...

Easier shipping?