SALES

INFORMATION

eta becomes available to the market

eta, the best and most advanced sailplane in the world will shortly become available to an exclusive group of customers.

In World Gliding Championship Leszno 2003 we finally had the chance to see the new eta aircraft in a first class competition event. At the end of the contest they were in some of the top positions. The etas won five days of the competition. We congratulate Janus Centka for finishing second behind a fabulous flying Holger Karow. Regrettably, one day after Stefano Ghiorzo became first time winner of the day, he got a penalty of around 700 points. This penalty took him back to eighth place at the end of the contest.

With more experience on the aircraft, both pilots managed to make increasingly use of the superior gliding capabilities of eta. One of the main improvements was the use of more negative flap settings than the pilots were used to with their regular aircraft. This prevents the etas from flying beyond the laminar bucket at the higher speed range.

The contest showed absolutely no problems in ground handling, launching, thermalling and landing. All three etas flying have meanwhile accumulated some 1000 hours of flying time without problems.

By the end of September 2003, in the final phase of extensive flight tests for obtaining the type certification, eta no. 2 crashed while recovering from a continuously forced spiral dive. We are glad that both pilots parachuted to safety. The tail tube broke due to loads from the vertical tail. The certification requirements of JAR 22 did not cover such an enormous stress which had occurred in this forced spiral dive.

Nevertheless, we decided on our own that eta should be able to withstand these extraordinary flight conditions. So we strengthened the tail tube and scaled down the vertical tail a little bit while using an airfoil with slightly higher rudder efficiency. Recent test flights with modified aircraft no. 1 showed the same handling characteristics as before with reduced rudder forces. In addition, structural tests up to the extend limit load were successfully performed with the modified tail. We expect no further delay in the process of type certification.

In the workshops eta no. 4 is in the process of final assembly. Aircraft no. 5 and no. 6 are sold to the investors of the project. From aircraft no. 7 eta will be sold to interested pilots. No. 7 will be available in Winter 2004/2005. The production rate of the glider is now 2 aircraft per year and will reach 3 aircraft per year in 2005.

We have made substantial progress in continuously reducing the production costs. However, eta was not designed to become a sailplane for mass production and for a large group of customers. The eta can only be manufactured within extremely narrow tolerances. That means that a lot of expensive craftsmanship is needed. About 3 to 4 times more working hours are needed compared to conventional open class gliders. As a return for this substantial investment, an eta owner gets an aircraft with an unbeatable performance and we are convinced that it will stay state of the art for a long time.

At this stage we would like to establish a list of potential customers. We will also offer events where the eta can be inspected and test flown.

Please inform us if you would like to be placed on the list of potential customers. Contracts will be offered following the sequence of that list.

Best regards,

Hartmut Lodes
Spokesman of the eta investors group

Contact: sales@eta-aircraft.de