I've been talking with my suppliers lately, lining up plastic and composite materials for the molds and some first article parts. It's been somehat of a shock. It seems that my suppliers are getting new price sheets from their suppliers every week, and believe me it's not for reductions.
The good news I have for you is that the HP-24 base kit price is holding steady at $17,500 Y2K dollars.
Here's the bad news: About 25% of that price must be calculated in petrodollars, linked straight to the price of crude oil. That portion of the price covers paints, resins, and plastics for which the main components are petrochemicals, and also materials that require relatively large amounts of energy to make.
If you take 24% of the $17500 Y2K price, you get $4375. Then, if you divide that by a typical Y2K crude oil price of $25 per barrel, you get 175 barrels of oil. So from now on, let's say that 175 barrels is the petro component of the HP-24 kit price.
Yes, I know that it doesn't take 175 barrels of oil to make the composite materials that goes into a 15-meter composite sailplane. However, it takes energy to make the materials, and energy to move them. And these days that energy mostly comes from oil.
And for the next person who suggests that we all use friendly and renewable energy stores from solar and biochem resources, I have an assignment for you: Go find a factory that manufactures photovoltaic cells using energy from photovoltaic cells, or find a distillery that makes ethanol from corn by burning ethanol from corn. Or maybe a wind turbine factory that runs on wind power. I'm in agreement with Don Lancaster that at this point, that those technologies are all net energy sinks.
So, anyhow, the base price for an HP-24 kit will be: 175 barrels of oil plus $13125 Y2K.
Using a typical inflation calculator, for example this one, you find that $13125 Y2K is worth about $13875 in 2003 (Inflation through 2004 isn't available, so I'll give you one year increase for free). So a typical current kit price would be $13875 + (175 * $50 per barrel) = $22625.
Of course, if you want to have hopped through your time gate and gone back to Y2K, you're welcome to have already given me a check for $17500 for the full purchase price of a base kit. For which, of course, I would have thanked you most graciously. Tenser, said the Tensor! Tension, apprehension, and dissention have begun!
page updated 3 November 2004 all text and graphics copyright (c) 2004 HP Aircraft, LLC