You could probably extrapolate from the cost of an RV part-built kit. They’re meant to be just under the 50% built level. The kits are part assembled in the developing world (Phillipines IIRC) and are not a huge amount more expensive than the bare metal.
The additional issues would be certification and liability.
Never understood RV’s, never understood Cirrii. So I’m obviously a bad judge of desirability and you probably should not employ me as an oracle. 
kwlf wrote:
The kits are part assembled in the developing world (Phillipines IIRC) and are not a huge amount more expensive than the bare metal.
That’s a very good point and is also an important part of advances and innovations that combine to make an RV available, where it wasn’t before – in this case meaning the use of our now increased ability to outsource to developing countries, mainly via cheaper, faster goods transport and instant worldwide communication.
Silvaire wrote:
How that occurs now, and the non-involvement of factories, is part of the technology and not a problem… except where backward looking regulation makes it so
Exactly.
So for an RV8 a kit is 25K and 50% built is about 36.5 K. Extrapolating, it may cost 23K to get it built 100% so it would cost 50K dollars for the airframe. Add on another 50K dollars for the instruments and engine, and a hopefully generous 20K for the paint and other finishing, and the aircraft should cost 120K to produce, including whatever profit margins they’re making already.
It’s a lot of money, but still a far cry from the price of a comparable certified aircraft. Arguably the skills of their builders may probably be better than those of most amateurs and are at worst, satisfactory, so it is hard to make a safety case for insisting that homebuilt aircraft are … homebuilt.
With radio control aircraft there has been a big move away from balsa construction towards aircraft moulded out of foam. I have looked at plans for a number of homebuilt aircraft and I can’t help but think that many of them could perhaps be simplified in a similar way. For example aircraft such as the CriCri or Luciole could have two single foam parts comprising all the ribs. You could epoxy carbon fiber pultrusions in place to form the spars, and epoxy CNC cut aluminium parts into place and hugely simplify construction. You’d eliminate all the measuring and cutting work. Perhaps you could even introduce vent holes and use suction to pull the skins towards the foam whilst the glue dries.
