Sig makes some of the best airplanes in my opinion and I would not guess that the Seniorita would be any different. You can see the plane as advertized by Sig for $199 here.
http://www.sigmfg.com/cgi-bin/dpsmar...FV4.html?E+Sig

Anyway, I decided to take a look at Nitro Planes offerings just to kill some time today and found the Seniorita offered on their website for $79 ($120 less???).
http://www.nitroplanes.com/90a268.html

What gives? Is this some copy cat? Even NP's oreder number for the plane is SIGRC60ARF. If Sig did sell some Seniorita ARF's to NP do you think they would endorse this discount? I have an OS .20 that is begging me to buy this plane and convert it to Nitro (as it should be)

I've got a call into David Redden at Sig to see if I can get the lowdown on this. I'll pass on what I find after I talk to him.

Ken

I just tried to buy one, just because I can't resist a deal. I have no use for one, but it would be a fun plane to setup as an electric. Once I found out the shipping would set me back $31, I decided to pass. It's still a great deal, but like I said, I really don't need it.

Ya, they wanted $33.05 to ship it to me... and like you, I don't really need it. I'm starting to get a little better control of my trigger finger

I'll bet that this is the last of the Seniorita ARFs.

Iwould guess these were somehow "redirected" from the factory order that should have gone to Sig Just my opinion.

Take a look here at the "fly model" page. http://www.fly-model.com/cp_detail.p...=0264:&catid=0

These are the planes being distributed by Nitro. The picture showing the package is interesting. it is definitely a Sig box and a Sig manual. The Sig logo is clearly smudged out.

Something stinks if you ask me. There have been other instances where Nitro Planes or other similar distributors were selling copies of products owned by someone else. I've even seen pages of their manuals "borrowed" from some of the better known companies. Another thing I've seen happen is a copyrighted logo, such as Red Bull, is used without license and all the decals have to be pulled from the packages. Then there was the 50cc Extra with the Exact same trim scheme as the GP 27% and 38% Extra which is now changed.

I'm not necessarily knocking Nitro Planes. I have dealt with them and they seem like nice people. I just wonder about some of their suppliers now and then.

I suppose this case could be perfectly innocent though. We'll see what Sig has to say.

The plane is not a copy it is a SIG Senorita. I have one from each vendor with the nitro one being used for spares. There are a lot of opinions in a thread at http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1170386 but so far no comment from SIG.

Interesting thing is they are now out of stock at nitro but they say they will have a new shipment in 4/6 weeks + the manufacturer says they will sell them direct in 10 unit minimum lots.

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/27..._Airplane.html

Senorita is an awsome airplane. I built a scratch model from by brothers plans (tail dragger) and flew it over 500 times in the course of a couple of years, trained 4 friends on it and flew it backward in high winds. It had an os .25 with a 10 oz tank for 30-40 minute flight times. I miss it.

I recently came into possession of one of these Senoritas sold by Nitro Planes from a local seller. Seeing the beautiful plane in person and the low price made it too difficult to resist.

I just couldn't get over the fact that it might be a less than honest product though so I called Sig this afternoon to see what they had to say. I was told that this was indeed identical to the Sig Senorita ARF but Sig in no way released the rights to the airplane allowing anyone else to sell it. I was told that the Chinese manufacturer just decided to build and sell them behind Sig's back at a super-low cost and they supposedly did not even bother to do different packaging, covering, documentation, etc. deciding to just paint over any references to Sig instead. I was also told that Sig is not happy about the situation at all.

The person I spoke to was a tech support representative and we did not talk about any legalities, actions or anything of that sort so I am comfortable sharing what was discussed.

This made up my mind. I am not going to support anyone who does business that way. I am not judging anyone who does; by all means have fun with the airplane. Mine is going away though. If anyone else is thinking about buying one, take moment to consider the situation before making up your mind. Think about your company, your job, your neighbors job, etc. What if you designed something and someone else profited off of it behind your back?

Again, I am not casting any judgment on anyone who buys and flys this airplane. Heck, I bought one too. I am just sharing what I know to diffuse some of the misinformation out there and help others in their decision making when it comes to this airplane.

Also, Nitro Planes is not the manufacturer of this ARF, they are just buying and reselling them. I would personally still consider a Nitro Planes purchase, just not this particular item.

Nitroplanes is always out of stock on most everything. Don't waste your time!

Is everything made in China? This sucks for sig. They trusted them and they got pooped on. How much do you guys think the plane would cost if it was made in the usa?

IMO> Planes manufactured in USA would be more better quality than China. Hangar 9's high-end products all are chinese made. Chinese engines are pretty good, but why planes are made in China, not in USA, it's all businessmen's greed thats it. Planes should be affordable and should be proudly made in USA.

I'll build you all the USA made ARF's you want as soon as I can hire people for $2 a day. The only greed is the consumers wanting something for nothing.

Yep, by the time we found the skilled US workers willing to build tha ARF's, paid their wages, overtime, their benefits, workers comp, liability insurance, property taxes on the building, environmental stuff, miscelaneous taxes, dealt with the inevitiable lawsuits and everything else, a .40 size ARF would cost a thousand dollars.

Then there is on stopping on out-sourcing and people or consumer would never be happy, they'd keep complaining about workmanship. Plane would continue to be imported from China and other countries. Cheap labor higher profits. let's be content on what we have (WYSIWYG) WHAT YOU SEE IS WHAT YOU GET.

Maybe we shouldn't be content with what we have, that's what got us in the mess we are in. ENJOY !!! RED

Mody,
Sorry, but the largest majority (if not all) of Hangar 9's product is produced in Vietnam. They have very little made in China any longer.

Over the next few years Iexpect to see a lot of the ARFproduction leave China for cheaper labor forces. Now that the Chinese workers are discovering the benefits money can bring they are starting to demand higher wages and benefits (ahh, capitalism at work!!).

Ken

Sig Kits are made in the USA!!!!! Not the ARFs of course but the kits are and they are of top notch quality.
Sig fell behind in kit manfacturing with the balsa shortage. They could get balsa but it was of sub standard quality and they refused to make kits out of it. I respect that, they could have made a ju(less than optimum) product for a little while just to fill orders but they were honest enough not to.
Maybe somebody could set up a little workshop and put out ARFs on a limited basis. Ihave considered it but I am not much of a kit builder.

Who do they think they are wanting a good quality of life?

I tend to agree with you. At one time "made in Japan" wasn't necessarily a good thing. Now it is synonymous with high quality. A lot of the Japanese brands started being made in China and elsewhere in Asia though in order to keep prices reasonable as the cost of manufacturing has gone up in Japan. A similar situation has happened with Korea. The same will likely start happening with China. They are starting to make some serious quality stuff but you can see prices creeping up.

This ARF thing has really spoiled us though. Anyone who has ever purchased wood, cut the pieces, assembled them, bought covering and put it on the plane, bought all the hardware, etc. knows what an amazing deal that a quality ARF is.

Who knows though. Maybe there will be some materials come along or some manufacturing technique that will make it affordable to produce ARF's in places like the US, Canada, Europe, etc. some day.
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Its too bad kit demand just isn;t so strong these days. I imagine it is strong enough for a few select manufacturers like Sig to eek out a living though. I saw they have an electric 4-Star kit now which is great. I know it costs a lot of money and time with no guarantee of returns but maybe they can come up with a few new fresh designs as well.
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Thanks Ken for updating me regarding the Hangar 9's info, I saw my plane made in China so I thought majority is made in China.

I've made up my mind to visit my country at the end of this year, lets see how it goes. In my childhood a lot of American products available in my country and they were sturdy, robust, durable and long lasting. Yes Japanese cars which are being used my Uncle still has Toyota Corolla 1974 model tough, robust as rock. New markets are sought, capitalism is sprawled around China, capitalists are on the go in search of new cheap market. Calls centers have all been out sourced, all the software are being developed outside USA and are being imported here. Well long topic, so much to talk about it. It's a never ending story.


Mody

We still make a lot of very, very good stuff here in the USA. The problem is that as we become more successful and people get more affluent, they no longer want to do certain kinds of jobs or they want extremely high pay and beneftis for it.

You're right, but at the moment, economy is making people do what they never did in their entire life. Good things should start coming out soon. Have you guys seen Spektrum is coming out with a new Transmitter TX in 33 days. What kinda Tx it's gonna be and price range.

http://www.spektrumrc.com/

I actually hope the economy will make people a little more humble.