My point of view on this is that of an utter newbie to RC'ing.

Having recently taken up a hobby that I have spent my entire life lurking about the edges of, I am thrilled to have recently graduated to flying an R/C plane all by myself.

I have no knowledge of the hallowed planes of yesteryear, I just want an exciting looking low-wing plane that I have a fighting chance of being able to fly sucessfully and begin to learn some of the (goosebump raising) aerobatic maneuvers that I've seen full sized aircraft perform at airshows. The US40+ seems to offer that, and in the process look more like a "real" airplane than the old US40. I was not even aware of "3D" aerobatics until I hit some of the movie links here on RCU...interesting, but not terribly compelling to me...but that may change...if a plane can adapt to that kind of flying with a few setup tweaks then what the hey!

I was/am almost convinced that I should be building something like the SIg 4*40 over the winter, but to me this plane, as great a flyer that it may be, is not all that attractive. Call me shallow, but that is important too! I have seen some modified 4*'s that are knockouts, but I really don't want to be modifying my first kit-built plane.

From a marketing standpoint there will always be new people entering the hobby hopefully, they like me don't have any knowledge of the heritage of R/C planes. In order to survive, the manufacturers must design kits that appeal to this chunk of the market as well as those who value planes that are steeped in history.

I for one can't wait to get my hands on a US 40+!