John Schroeder asks:

<<was D2 performing another service to earn that markup?>>

Yes. D2 was providing direct customer support. Besides being on call 24/7 to answer questions, they also set up and maintained an extensive web site with useful information.

You need to understand that because every experimental airplane is a "one of a kind" the experimental market requires many times the customer support of the certified market.

Because CFS now offers certified products it has put in place the required quality system standards and procedures. Anyone who is familiar with this will tell you that it is not practical to operate a company in a schizophrenia manner where there are two (certified and experimental) ways of doing things. Once you have made the move to certified, a strong case to divest your experimental endeavors can be made.

<<Has anyone here seen a three tiered system like this in the business world lately?>>

Have you called the technical support line of a typical high tech product company and not talked to someone in India? What tier would that be?

<<Finally, why would they want to want to carry a product (Pinpoint) and agree to keeping its manufacturer anonymous?>>

The answer is simple. Performance.  If confidentiality is part of the price of being able to exclusively offer a product  that your own, first hand, testing has shown to be superior, then it is an easy price to pay. You must appreciate that the american legal system scares the *#&% out of most of the worlds business population.

<<My vote is for Crossbow on this round. They have had problems, but have been pretty honest>>>

Some people will buy a car because it is blue and blue is their favorite color.  Me, I prefer to pick a product based on its suitability to the task and superiority to other comparable products.  If all it took was to talk the talk then every product at OSH would the best. As Fred Moreno has often said "Show me the data". Anything else is just prevarication.

John also seems to be implying that  the ability to keep confidential information confidential somehow contrasts with being "honest".  A good friend of mine survived to bombing of Coventry (11/15/1940) during WWII. Study this event you will have a deeper appreciation of the need for keeping a secret.

Regards
Brent Regan