200% dead, no shops in the UK would take their kits due to quality issues, They are very well known in the UK. Check the events page on the web site, it hasnt been updated since 2002.
Like you say the manual (or 2 page letter) is somewhat lacking, the parts never fit without loads of filler and luck. Some of the single engine models are terrible flyers, and have no washout what soever in them, the multi engine models seem a bit better, and if over powered they seem to fly ok, but drop like a stone on slow landings.
Todate I have built (and thrown away) the Pitts, Me109, Ju87. I still have a B-25 part built, but the fit of the wing parts (engines) has stopped me continuing.
Always a good topic on the UK forums,
http://www.*************.co.uk/4um/i...;threadid=5093
I live in the same town as aerotech kits are manufactured and it says it all when the lads in the local club wont touch their kits with a very long barge pole.
their 45" Sukhoi for 35-45. It is quite awful. It builds (and I am a reasonable light builder) to 5 lbs even with hollowing everything is sight and using film only for covering. Then I discivered that the advised CG was too far back- I will NEVER touch one of their kits again.
Have you ever wondered: Why this brand has not managed to get reviewed in the magazines?; Why it is almost impossible to find a flying example at your club despite Aerotech making the models that everyone wants?; Why the link you give makes absolutely no mention of its flying? Read between the lines!
A few years ago my model shop bought a few Aerotech and got customers to build them, to hang the models from the ceiling as part of the "shop window". None were completed as all the builders said they were incapable of being built. The reasons given were parts missing and parts that did not fit, and did not fit so badly that they seemed to come from entirely different models. This was consistent with every report I heard first hand from other people's attempts to build Aerotech, and from web reports. I have lost the weblink, but a couple of years ago there was an entire website dedicated purely to warning people why not to buy an Aerotech kit! It listed the faults, and the failed attempts to get Aerotech to supply replacement parts, which they always failed to do. Again this was consistent with reports from everyone else who found faulty parts or had parts missing, Aerotech would never put it right.