Stewart 51 Partner LLC
This Kit was bought by the gentleman from Norway, shipped from Montgomery on December 4th. 
 
This section will be moved to Past News and Events.
 
 
Kit for Sale
 
In late March / early April, I had the pleasure of hosting a young fellow and his father from California, then a fellow and his female friend from Norway, as they inspected the "Gertiser Kit" in Montgomery.  They were all delightful people and I had a nice visit with each party.  The net result was that I did enter into an Agreement with the folks from California that give them a Right of First Refusal for one year on the Kit.  We'll see what develops from here, but both parties will make great Stewart 51 builders and operators. 
 
The gentleman from Norway is building up a twelve cylinder BMW engine that he might use if he gets to a point where he can swing our kit or one of the other scale replicas available.  He has been set back lately by the rate of exchange going against him as his Krones have devalued relative to our Dollars.  His female companion is a descendant of some of Norway's first aviators.  I'd love to see them get into one of these replicas together. 
In consolidating the scattered assets of the S-51D program, Mr. Ray Larner, a man very instrumental in gathering these assets, had purchased and accomplished some work on this kit, which had originally been purchased and worked on by a Mr. Frank Gertiser.  This kit is now owned by Stewart 51 Partner, LLC and is an excellent value for someone who wants to put their personal touches on their own kit sooner than would be possible by waiting for our new production kits.

We are pricing this kit as is where is at $129,500.  The kit is very nearly complete, lacking only the top cowling and main landing gear trunions.  These two components will be available at some point from Stewart 51 Partner, LLC, but are not available as of today.  Both of those components are buildable from scratch by a kit builder if absolutely necessary, but we plan to offer them in about a year.

We have de-mated the wings and are removing the top fuel tank area skins for rework.  Beyond those two skins, the workmanship on the kit is excellent, a combination of the Fast-Build work from HPAI and Gertiser and Larner.

The kit is in Montgomery, Alabama.  The photographs below give a fairly complete idea of which components are supplied and the workmanship accomplished to date.  This project has had much of the necessary work accomplished, saving the next owner many hours of build time toward having a very nice flying S-51D.
The photo above shows some sub-par rivet work on the two skins covering the two fuel tank areas.  Other than these two panels, the rivet work is first class.  Obviously, not all past work on this kit was accomplished by the same person.

Photos below show some of same issue.  These skins will need to be replaced by the next owner using nominal oversized shank rivets for a proper job.  Installation of these two skins is the builder's responsibility as part of the 51% rule, where the FAA has the builder accomplish at least 51% of the work.
Horizontal Stabilzer Fairings and Belly Scoop.
Aft Horizontal Stabilizer Fairings and Tips.
Wing Tips, Wing Fairings.
Assembled Ailerons.
Collected Fairings, Ailerons, Flaps.
Assembled Flaps.