Having researched aluminium housing manufacture and then attempting to make patterns for a composite ( al. with steel wear face) end housing, I can assure you it isn't as easy as it first appears.  

 

Hi George,

 

I talked to RB at length a year ago about their housings.  There were no technical issues in the way, but they just hadn't received that much interest in getting them done, even at "only" $1200 each.  They said the front housing was all ready to cut the prototype, and they only needed about a month to finish it, but it had been shelved for other projects. 

 

At the same time, they said there had been another one of those wacko California laws passed that seriously raised the price of their flame spraying process.  They guessed it would cost $2k each for the housings at the new price, and were going to try to find someone outside of the state to treat them.   Unless they could get the price back down, they didn't figure on making any more, and I don't blame them.  How many car guys will pay $6k to lose about 36 lbs?  I bet not many people on this list would pay that for an airplane. 

 

Cheers,

Rusty