The Grand Esteem was the result of 3 years of intense international and domestic travel for its creators. Meeting with some of the world's most famous manufacturers and pilots, Inventec Corporation, in 1994, finally completed the first production model of its new premium open class sailplane.

What they had created was a sailplane that had excellent soaring capabilities combined with solid directional tracking and stability at extreme low speeds (as in landing).

Drooped trailing edges and substantial added flaps for most of the launch trajectory assured over 600 foot launched every time. The added bonus being it could then zoom violently to even greater heights.

A modified SD7080 airfoil was just one of the superior design features that made this plane one of the best competition planes there was.

Not to mention the following design features:-

1. Beautiful Obechi pre-sheeted wings with a span of 122 inches.

2. Reduced camber towards the wing tips to the root with basic SD7030 airfoil.

3. An incredibly unique spar which was built of carbon fiber at a 1/2" diameter with the tube extending into most of the wing panel length offering incredible strength.

4. A triple tapered leading edge and double tapered trailing edge wing planform design.

5. Wing panels were slightly swept backwards giving it a highly unique appearance and making it near impossible to tip stall even intentionally.

6. Of most interest was the Esteem’s very ambitious fuselage design - her long and narrow boom which was flexible and not rigid allowing for an extremely light but strong stab and rudder control combination to co-exist even after intentional hard landings.

7. The Fuselage length is 52 inches and includes an X-Type fin and stab combination. Its strength comes from a perfectly round cross section with evenly distributed loads opposite to flat surfaces or abrupt changes in shape.

8. Following Inventec Corporation's instruction manual, the craft can be completed and ready-to-fly at about 56 to 58 ounces. The plane is a delight for the intermediate flyer, and a dream for the advanced flyer and as you have no doubt already surmised - not recommended for those with little flying experience. A little light work is all that is required to get her gracing the skies.

This auction is for the 122” Version X-Tail

Grand Esteem. It should be noted that only one instruction manual was ever written for the Esteem and it refers to the T-Tail version. Construction of the X-Tail is not much different than the T-Tail or for that matter the construction of most all designs from that time period. It is more of an assembly process than anything else.

There is really no magic with the stab bell crank. The bell crank rides on the brass tubing for the stab joiner. Just get the next size larger brass that fits over the stab joiner tube and glue the bell crank onto it. Then simply slip the inner joiner tube through the bell crank tube and epoxy the inner tube into the fuse, making sure you don't glue the 2 tubes together. Not much else going on in the assembly process beyond that.

Originally produced in the T-Type fin and stabilizer combination this kit is actually for the much rarer X-Tail fin and stabilizer combination.

The Grand Esteem can easily exceed the abilities of seasoned pilots thumbs and the attached article explains this phenomenon in great detail. Typical 15th place holders somehow soaring to 1st place holders in the blink of an eye?? Sounds like the stuff of legends…

The kit is brand new and comes with all the necessary components to assemble the model. It has never been plundered for parts and has rarely been opened except for photos. Finding one of these, In this day and age is like finding a needle in a hay stack. They simply don’t exist anymore and although a lot of flyers would love to see them return to the skies through limited production runs, unfortunately they will forever be something of the past.

“Gracious and docile”, the Grand Esteem, as all the literature will tell you, was the grandest of them all.