RE: DeHaviland Comet
Fresh, 27 Dec '05 accurate information from Mike Greenshields of Global Hobby:
DH88 has a few on the way, more coming 30 days after.
What I know about them......
The fuselage is made from a fuel proof, hand-selected plastic that is molded to shape, including panel lines, rivets, etc...The frame that those skins go around is made from a combination of plywood, balsa, and carbon fiber rods. So, in the areas where there's not a lot of stress there's simply not much weight. Thus, our DH88 is a sold 1-2 pounds lighter than other DH88's we've seen in the size range.
But where's there's stress, like the gear mounts, engine mounts, wing, etc....this is all made using plywood, hardwood, balsa, etc. in a more conventional way. The Nacells on the DH88 are Fiberglass with heavy duty plywood framing. I think you could drive nails with the wing center section on the Comet.
As far as the plastic goes, this is material that the factory spent some time researching. Test like soaking it in raw fuel, flying the planes for hundreds of flights, etc. were all performed to make sure this process would really work. I know it's a bit odd, but the end result is just super.
ASM DH88 is already being sold and flown in Australia through the ASM agent there. So, we know customers are happy with the product. The European agent has extensively tested the designs and their pilots really like them. After all of our testing as well, we're pretty confident in the plane too. The planes are simply great.
One other point on the Comet. The nacells are super easy to work with. They are removable from the wing with amazing simplicity making maintenance to the engine and landing gear/etc. easy and quick.