It is hard to believe It has been a full year since we began offering the Panther to the experimental market! This past year has been great, we have learned a lot and the kit has progressed considerably.
We have made many advances in parts in the Panther kit. The parts in the kit are more refined and the builder experience is improved. We have added some great features like vacuum bag epoxy fiberglass parts which are lighter and stronger, and easier to finish for the builder.
We have worked to get a little more head room for the tallest of pilots – without compromising the sleek look. We added more match tooling to the kit, with a fully matched rear fuselage and fuel tank kit and more to come soon. The full photo, step by step builders manual and plan sheets are coming along nicely as well.
We have also expanded our workshop area and brought in talented team members to offer quality parts to our builders at the volume level the market demands. We have added a new eCommerce site to improve the customer service experience by allowing customers to price out their build and add accessories to their project. One stop shopping is something we feel instills confidence in a builders ability to see the project as a whole.
When we first offered the Panther kit to the market we were in “Soft Start” mode. This means we were buying our builders patience by offering a very low priced kit, with minimal documentation with the understanding the builders would be patient and give us feedback on parts. This allowed us to correct mistakes, iron out the inventory, shipping process and build the documentation as the vendors ramped up to production speeds.
Now that we have ironed out many kinks in the process, and have the volume pricing from our vendors based off of the current production parts and demand, we have been able to get a real price point for what it takes to manufacture a full Panther kit. This requires us to set the price for the full production kits at 14,375. As of now this is the current price for new builders moving forward.
Sub Kit pricing has also been updated as follows:
Plans – 450
Tail Kit – 1450
Wing Kit – 4850
Fuselage Kit – 7125
Finishing Kit – 2125
For all our sub-kit builders to date we have extended a 30 day offer to upgrade to a full kit at the original price. Many builders have already accepted this offer and have upgraded their kit to a full kit.
To date – we have 24 full kit builders, and total of 42 serial number builders that have a smattering between plans and sub kits, with the majority being the latter. Not bad for one year on the market!
Although it pains us to raise our price, the Panther kit remains a good value.
Click the images below to see the full flyer.
