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Order Your RV15 Wing Kit Today! $19,650

[ed. Verbiage put out by the mothership. v/r,dr]
The First RV-15 Airframe Kit Is Here!
Starting today at 12:30 PM CST, the RV-15 wing kit is officially available for order — marking the first airframe kit release for this aircraft.
Introductory price: $19,650
Order at Booth #605 during AirVenture or call our office to get in line.
Full details: www.vansaircraft.com/rv-15
Photo: Jon Bliss
Screenshot 2025-07-21 at 10.58.53 AM.png
 
“…..or call our office to get in line.”

I wish they could find a less arrogant way to word things, or perhaps it’s just me. Oh well, it’s good to be king.
If I was looking to build a STOL aircraft, I’d probably swallow and get in line.
It’s a fine piece of engineering and a great looking product.
 
That wasn’t my read, Jon. I *think* everyone buying today forward is getting a place in line, whether at the show or on the phone. I thought it was a nice gesture to open it up to the globe all at once, so to speak.
 
That wasn’t my read, Jon. I *think* everyone buying today forward is getting a place in line, whether at the show or on the phone. I thought it was a nice gesture to open it up to the globe all at once, so to speak.
Appreciate that….
 
Doug when are you putting down the deposit?
[ed. 🤔]
 
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Maybe someone at the show can ask about hard points for floats
I just received an email back from Vans. They don't know about float hard points until the fuselage is finalized. The also said "the spec sheet will go up on the website when available"..

Gary
 
Are they saying anything about cabin size, especially as it relates to the 10 or 14?
 
Interested in the 15 and curious why Van’s would announce a special price on the 15 wing kit but then say that the price can change before your final payment is received?
Van’s went from standing behind their price quoted for two years ( and I understand that was a mistake) to not standing behind their prices for a few months.
If they are are promoting their new kit , they should have a fixed price for this kit for perhaps the first number of kits. The way I see it , they are asking for deposit and once you’re committed then they will decide how much they want. I’m a repeat builder, having built three RV and I love them. But things at Van’s have changed a lot. We will see how it works for them.
 
I was more amazed that they're going to sell it pre-dimpled, and it looks like the plans for it are going to be a huge step up even from the -14. Pre built fuel tanks. Now I know how the -7 guys feel about the -14 guys :D
Nah, I love my 7. I might upgrade when they get to the RV21...but probably not.
 
Interested in the 15 and curious why Van’s would announce a special price on the 15 wing kit but then say that the price can change before your final payment is received?
Van’s went from standing behind their price quoted for two years ( and I understand that was a mistake) to not standing behind their prices for a few months.
If they are are promoting their new kit , they should have a fixed price for this kit for perhaps the first number of kits. The way I see it , they are asking for deposit and once you’re committed then they will decide how much they want. I’m a repeat builder, having built three RV and I love them. But things at Van’s have changed a lot. We will see how it works for them.
Ron,

I couldn't help but wonder the same thing. Vans says it "should be delivered by Dec. 2025" and it might be at the "special price" or it might not be. 5 years ago, I'd already have placed a deposit. Today? Nope, I'll sit this one out.
 
Ron,

I couldn't help but wonder the same thing. Vans says it "should be delivered by Dec. 2025" and it might be at the "special price" or it might not be. 5 years ago, I'd already have placed a deposit. Today? Nope, I'll sit this one out.
That’s what I’m doing for now.
 
That’s what I’m doing for now.

Of course that's your prerogative.

I don't think it's reasonable to expect the potential price adjustment to ever go away from Van's standard order language. That's how it's going to work for good now. If that's your line in the sand, which you are entitled to, just admit that this is not 'for now' and that you have decided not to build another RV.
 
I think anyone interested in ordering this kit at this point should consider if you can afford and have a tolerance for changes. This includes design tweaks, cost/price adjustments, lead time extensions, and even the potential that the kit never gets delivered (default).
If you can’t honestly say you have this kind of tolerance, I would wait until the product is fully integrated into the product line. Otherwise, yes, you are taking a risk to be on the forefront.
 
I think anyone interested in ordering this kit at this point should consider if you can afford and have a tolerance for changes. This includes design tweaks, cost/price adjustments, lead time extensions, and even the potential that the kit never gets delivered (default).
If you can’t honestly say you have this kind of tolerance, I would wait until the product is fully integrated into the product line. Otherwise, yes, you are taking a risk to be on the forefront.

Right now, I can't make the case for how I will afford it. I started my RV-12 under the same conditions. Leap of faith. The upside, is that comes with a built in tolerance for change. I can't afford with or without price changes so I'm flexible :p . I believe I will figure it out as I go, like I did before. I just want something to build now that my -12 is done, and I don't think I'll get hurt too bad if I have to punch out somewhere along the way.

I expect design tweaks. There is still a lot that is unanswered when you look at the entire timeline and consider MOSAIC, factory SLSAs, etc.

One thing I'm confident about is that it's not going to get any cheaper if I wait. Learned that one with the last build too! I paid $8k for a wing kit in 2021, it's $14k now. I won't call this one cheap, but in light of a $14k -12 wing this seems like good value.
 
More details tomorrows, but what I heard today, we can/should be amazed by the value being delivered, instead of short sided on price.

  1. Pre-punched and Final drilled holes, PRE_DIMPLED!
  2. Gas-tanks pre-built and done for you
  3. Instructions in color, with a parts list for each page ( and suggested they will package parts per page)
What's our time worth? These changes alone would have saved me 400+hrs on my RV8 build? Worth $20K ( I don't pay myself well at all )
 
Some quick Math. At $19,650, that's ~12% more than the RV-10 wing kit (next most expensive wing kit you can buy). Multiplying the 4 main kit cost of an RV-10 by 12% suggests a complete RV-15 slow build kit could cost about 96k.
Add Engine (119EXP) - 66.3k
80" Hartzell Prop - 13k
Firewall Fwd kit - 12.5k
188k total, before avionics.
 
Some quick Math. At $19,650, that's ~12% more than the RV-10 wing kit (next most expensive wing kit you can buy). Multiplying the 4 main kit cost of an RV-10 by 12% suggests a complete RV-15 slow build kit could cost about 96k.
Add Engine (119EXP) - 66.3k
80" Hartzell Prop - 13k
Firewall Fwd kit - 12.5k
188k total, before avionics.
Pretty good!! They said today they currently forecast total at 89K, so your probably pretty spot on
 
Some quick Math. At $19,650, that's ~12% more than the RV-10 wing kit (next most expensive wing kit you can buy). Multiplying the 4 main kit cost of an RV-10 by 12% suggests a complete RV-15 slow build kit could cost about 96k.
Add Engine (119EXP) - 66.3k
80" Hartzell Prop - 13k
Firewall Fwd kit - 12.5k
188k total, before avionics.
You can do all that math, but it seems weird to assume the kits normalize to the RV-10 that way. Or you can take Van's estimates, which to be fair are likely to move some. There's a gap between your numbers and theirs when you do!

Screenshot 2025-07-21 at 7.05.27 PM.png
 
Interested in the 15 and curious why Van’s would announce a special price on the 15 wing kit but then say that the price can change before your final payment is received?
Van’s went from standing behind their price quoted for two years ( and I understand that was a mistake) to not standing behind their prices for a few months.
If they are are promoting their new kit , they should have a fixed price for this kit for perhaps the first number of kits. The way I see it , they are asking for deposit and once you’re committed then they will decide how much they want. I’m a repeat builder, having built three RV and I love them. But things at Van’s have changed a lot. We will see how it works for them.
Given the bankruptcy disaster, I don’t see how anyone would order under their proposed conditions, unless the deposit is refundable. If they are taking orders on a product that they have not yet figured out how to price, it would seem that the bankruptcy didn’t teach them as many lessons as it should have. And why call It a special deal when the deal price will not likely be the final price.
 
Given the bankruptcy disaster, I don’t see how anyone would order under their proposed conditions, unless the deposit is refundable. If they are taking orders on a product that they have not yet figured out how to price, it would seem that the bankruptcy didn’t teach them as many lessons as it should have. And why call It a special deal when the deal price will not likely be the final price.
People are really struggling with the idea of special pricing. It’s really not a new concept and does not imply that they don’t know how to price the wing kit. It’s possible, maybe even implied, that the price goes up at some point for future orders.

There are special prices all over the airport grounds this week.
 
People are really struggling with the idea of special pricing. It’s really not a new concept and does not imply that they don’t know how to price the wing kit. It’s possible, maybe even implied, that the price goes up at some point for future orders.

There are special prices all over the airport grounds this week.
I was not really referring to the special pricing as i was the vans statement that this price is not necessarily the price you will be charged when we ship it. Meaning it could be the 19,999 or it could be 29,999, you won’t know until they ask for the funds. If vans is unable to say that the kit costs x and you will pay x when it ships, then clearly they have not figured out how to price it yet, why else scare people away by saying the special price means nothing. All that matters is what we decide to charge you later and we haven’t yet decided what that is. I hope they do well with that new model, but no way i put a deposit on something that I don’t know the price of.
 
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I was not really referring to the special pricing as i was the vans statement that this price is not necessarily the price you will be charged when we ship it. Meaning it could be the 19,999 or it could be 29,999, you won’t know until they ask for the funds. If vans is unable to say that the kit costs x and you will pay x when it ships, then clearly they have not figured out how to price it yet.

This is true for every kit they sell now, with higher risk on longer lead times. The reason is explained in countless other threads on the bankruptcy topic if you need more info on lead times and price risk. I can’t blame you for deciding you won’t build another RV as a result.

Good news is that the chips will fall on wing kits in pretty short order.
 
I ordered mine today! I wonder where I am in line. Oh well, patience...this is going to be a fun build.
It is interesting to find out how quickly the wings can be built with most of the prefab work was completed and using mostly pop rivets.
 
Guy behind the counter at vans yesterday told me 3 days start to finish. Hard to believe.
It is interesting to find out how quickly the wings can be built with most of the prefab work was completed and using mostly pop rivets.
 
It is interesting to find out how quickly the wings can be built with most of the prefab work was completed and using mostly pop rivets.
I just spent several days riveting the bottom wing skins on my RV-14. If the -14 wing used pop rivets, it would have taken an hour.
 
I was not really referring to the special pricing as i was the vans statement that this price is not necessarily the price you will be charged when we ship it. Meaning it could be the 19,999 or it could be 29,999, you won’t know until they ask for the funds. If vans is unable to say that the kit costs x and you will pay x when it ships, then clearly they have not figured out how to price it yet, why else scare people away by saying the special price means nothing. All that matters is what we decide to charge you later and we haven’t yet decided what that is. I hope they do well with that new model, but no way i put a deposit on something that I don’t know the price of.

Some quick Math. At $19,650, that's ~12% more than the RV-10 wing kit (next most expensive wing kit you can buy). Multiplying the 4 main kit cost of an RV-10 by 12% suggests a complete RV-15 slow build kit could cost about 96k.
Add Engine (119EXP) - 66.3k
80" Hartzell Prop - 13k
Firewall Fwd kit - 12.5k
188k total, before avionics.
With a nice bush plane vibe interior, IFR avionics, nice paint or wrap I would think $235-$250K. Pretty much in line with the EX3 I built last year. I love the Cub but all metal would be nice. If they design float attach points into the fuselage that would be a huge plus. 215HP with a Trailblazer CS prop would make a great floatplane.
 
Can anyone explain why the finish kit would cost $23,000? The finish kit of my RV-8 was about the same as the firewall forward kit, if I remember correctly.

Does anyone have information from Van's about what will be included in the finishing kit?

Thanks.
 
Guy behind the counter at vans yesterday told me 3 days start to finish. Hard to believe.
I talked with a fellow builder of a Zenith with prepunch wings. He and his son finished the wings in one month. The entire airplane was finished quickly too.

If the RV15 plane goes into factory serial production, I am sure it can be built a lot faster and more efficiently than other traditional certificate metal airplanes from Cessna or Piper.
 
Can anyone explain why the finish kit would cost $23,000? The finish kit of my RV-8 was about the same as the firewall forward kit, if I remember correctly.

Does anyone have information from Van's about what will be included in the finishing kit?

Thanks.
I don’t know what’s in the finish kit but if it includes 31” Alaskan Bushweel tires those run approx $4,500 for a set.
 
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