It is easy to blame the popularity of ARF's on the down fall in kits. Sure, there is a big demand for them and no doubt, big money in it for the manufactures. But, I think there is another element involved. While demand for kits is shrinking, there is still definitely a market for them. The "big" players in the market are focusing all of their effort on the ARF's and totally ignoring the kit side of the business. They probably say, "Gee, why should we come out with new kits, when nobody is buying the ones that we already have." Well, that is just the point. Any plane, be it kit or ARF will build up in sale and then dwindle down. You constantly see ARFs going away as well. Why? Because they aren't selling anymore(among other reasons). They introduce new ones to replace them and excite the market. Unfortunately, they are not doing the same for kits. So, kits are also not selling well because the selection is stagnated. If Greatplanes, Sig and the others would introduce some new and exciting kits, I think they would find that the market is better than they think it is. But, the profit from that indeavor would probably not be as good as ARFs... and profit is what business is all about. Balsa USA, bless their souls, have not jumped on the ARF train yet and are releasing new kits all the time. From what I have seen, they don't appear to be suffering from lack of sales.

Mike