jp1961

Why does a Zenoah engine cost 350.00 for a R/C airplane, but a 30 cc string trimmer can be purchased at Homedepot for 69.95? One of those divine mysteries of life,,,LOL.

Jeff

av8tor1977

My Feedback: (6)

There is a formula for that. You take any part that will fit an airplane, and multiply the price times 5.2, add 25 bucks for Grandma, and sell it for the result.

Note that this is true for both model and full size aircraft. Similar formulas are in place for boat parts, hot rod parts, etc.

AV8TOR

earlwb

Economies of scale. The trimmer is made in the thousands of units whereas the model RC engine is made in the hundreds at the most. So when you place a order for 20,000 of something to be made, you get a lot more negotiating power in how much it is going to sell for versus 150 units for a model engine thus with model engines not much in the way of leverage for driving the cost down. Cox engines in their hey day used to place orders for things in the thousands of units. Cox didn't just order 200 crankshafts, they ordered 20,000 crankshafts or more even. With high quantities you can drive the price down.

If you think about it with the Echo brand they probably placed a order for 25,000 of the juat one model of the things to be made or more even. Just about every store sells the things too. So they had a huge ready market to distribute them out to as well.