I suppose if we think of ARF as "almost ready to fly" then composite kits certainly don't count. And I'm pretty sure doing a good job on one of Bob's jet kits takes more work (and skills) than I've put into my Snipe! On the other hand, if we read it as "Almost Ready to Finish" then maybe they are ARFs.

But as they say (mostly quoting Platt) once a model is completely framed up, it's just about half finished. Jets have a lot more "mechanicals" than simple WWI models (for example) so there's a lot of serious technical stuff. But I'd say they are more "assembled" than "built." But then once the kit is all in one piece there's a ton of work to get a decent looking finish. All I have to do is slap on a few coats of PC10 and hand paint some roundels. Compare that with doing the heat discolorations in the simulated titanium skin on the tail of an F-100. But then that's more like what the "plastic boys" do.

As for arguing semantics, well, that's pretty unavoidable in my line of work.

Dr. Donald Carroll
Department of Language and Culture