Update Wednesday

Peggy Fossett, wife of missing aviator Steve Fossett who has been missing since September 3rd, has requested that an Illinois court rule her husband as "dead".

There is finally news coming from Vans Aircraft on the RV-12. Seems they are expecting a FLOOD of orders and want to be ready to ship immediately. While the wait has been excruciating, it shows why Vans Aircraft is so respected in the homebuilt community. I have watched many aircraft companies make huge promises (anyone remember the BD-5 that was selling like hotcakes...even before a suitable engine had been found?) only to flame out and leave many buyers with a partial plane and no support.

Vans is expecting that the plane will be so easy to build that, "...there just wouldn’t be time for us to finish development work on a wing kit while early builders work on the empennage kit, for instance. That wing kit will need to be ready to go out the door a few weeks after the first empennage kit ships."

There has been speculation by other sites that Vans was preparing to ship a "complete kit" rather than the tried and true modular build method. This statement would seem to contradict that thought.

Here is a listing of some homebuilt companies. Click on the company links and see how many are no longer there. I have even come across a few that were "New!" and the company website was already gone. I think that Vans is here to stay.