The trouble with data.

By Marc Cook

In each December issue, this magazine publishes a comprehensive listing of aircraft kits for sale at the time we go to press (late September). And while much of the information is available elsewhere—from promotional material and web sites—there are a few bits and pieces that you won’t find anywhere else. One example is the number of completed aircraft, which, with a rare few examples, is not something companies like to publish in sales literature or on their web sites.

We get that data point the old fashioned way: We call the company and ask. Same for the rest of the figures, which are provided to us by the kit manufacturers. This interaction is important. In the course of reviewing the raw materials for the guide, we often find that the kitmaker’s web site is either quite old or in error. Sometimes both. …

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