Will Lanier still be around
 

Please dont tell me Lanier products will be discontinued. I see where Tower Hobbies has bought out Lanier and they are selling off kits and ARF's with huge cuts in price. I'm just wondering if they are trying to clear out the inventory and discontinue the line. I have flown several Lanier planes and love the way they handle and I don't wanna see them gone. In fact I have just bought another Stinger, a .40 ARF.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

I fly with one of the guys that makes some of their planes (He also makes some ARF's for us). I know he did a run of some of their products very recently because I had to wait for them to finish those before he could do a run of planes for us (Lanier is a bigger customer for him than we are so they get precedence over us).

I think they will still be around for a while. who knows what the future holds when there is a consolidation of manufacturers.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

:D

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

I have no inside information, but I can't imagine that Great Planes bought Lanier just to bury them. The problem that Great Planes has is that a lot of the Lanier and Goldberg product lines overlap with their own. I believe you'll see many Lanier products get cut, but some of the classics like the Stinger and Shrike should be around for a very long time to come.

Goldberg products will likely see a similar "thinning out" process, but I can't imagine anyone buying Goldberg and then discontinuing classics like the Tiger 2, Tiger 60, or Skylark when they don't directly compete with any Great Planes products.

Great Planes is going to have to figure out how to define their ARF/Kit brands (Hobbico, Great Planes, Lanier, Goldberg) in the same way that General Motors struggles to define their car brands (Chevy, Pontiac, GMC, Buick, Cadillac, Saturn, Hummer). If one of the brands ends up as redundant (Oldsmobile and Buick), then Great Planes will likely just scrap the weakest selling brand.

There's no reason why Great Planes couldn't scrap a brand name but release a "Great Planes Stinger" or "Great Planes Tiger 60" at some point. The best thing you can do to make sure that your favorite plane stays in production is to keep ordering it.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

They undoubtedly bought Lanier to get Goldberg. There is no blowout sale on Goldberg products.

The problem with a blowout sale is that it uses up the market for those products. Everyone who wants one will buy it before the price goes back up. So if the price does go back up, there is no one left to buy it. Sellers know that.

I don't have any inside info either, but a blow out sale is a pretty sure sign that the present line of Lanier products is history.

Jim

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

The plus side is that customer service has to improve as well as component and kit quality. There is no denying they fly well but had some serious flaws as in the stingers plastic parts and a weak wing saddle....most of the factory engine cowels have to be cut up to fit an engine and then fall apart from all the cutting.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

Actually, a wide array of Goldberg products are being sold off cheap as well. Great Planes is just being a little more subtle about it:

-Falcon 56 ARF reduced from $139.99 to $99.99
-Protege 60 Kit reduced from $99.99 to $59.99
-Skylane 62 ARF reduced from $179.99 to $114.99
-Surge 400 EP reduced from $89.99 to $39.99
-Cub 40 ARF RWB reduced from $199.99 to $139.99

Is a good time to be shopping for airplanes right now, but I am a bit concerned that the end is nigh for a number of high quality airframes.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

I think some of this applies to all brands, not just Lanier.

Kits hat have been around forever just disappear when inventory runs out, and there's no way to know if any more will be made.

Some ARFs, even if they're good, seem to just have one or two production runs then they are gone.

I have started to think you need to buy when you see something you like, even if you have no plan to build (or assemble) it right now, because it may be discontinued at any time. Of course this has to fit within the budget, or at least not put the credit card over the limit.

I do not have a stockpile but I understand why a lot of people do.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

I have no info either but maybe GP is thinning out the smaller Lanier planes and will
be keeping the 27% and larger planes that Lanier sold. Also there have been some
new additions to the goldberg line so I hope it's safe to say that these names will be
around for a while.

RE: Will Lanier still be around
 

Your choices are clear, they can be summarized as whatever Tower, Hobbico, Great Planes, want to sell you... As talked about before, they now own Lanier, Goldberg, others.. etc, etc...

Recently, maybe I was naive.. I found that Hang 9, Horizon group also reside in Champaign, IL, home of all of the above... I am certain that there is a Hobby Town USA connection also, but that one is only a guess! lock on the market, I think so!

As I've said before, I shouldn't throw stones.. I buy from them also!