I hope Mr. Smith has a good life insurance policy, Bill! I love the S-51 and there can even be some good deals had on partially built kits, owing to the high level of fabrication required to complete one (Stewart is long gone as are all the spares and missing parts).
I can appreciate the thrill and lure of a fast composite aircraft. My first trip to Oshkosh about 12 years ago I remember driving on a Wisconsin state highway, maybe 40 miles from the airport, when I saw something coming up low and fast in my rear view mirror. It was a Glassair about 200 feet off the deck right over the median strip and it was absolutely hauling ass. When it passed me it disappeared over the horizon in just a few seconds. Extremely impressive. Unfortunately, it takes a LOT of money and time to complete an aircraft that is that capable and they can be a handfull even in the hands of experienced pilots.
Me? Some day I'm going to buy an old Aeronca 7AC Champ like the one my Dad owned and I learned how to fly in. Fabric covering, no electrical or vacuum systems, a handful of operable instruments, hand-crank 65-hp engine, 4.6 gph burn rate, and a stately 86 mph cruise speed. Some of the best memories of my life were in that airplane. Lifting off into the misty dawn of a lazy summer morning, or flying around puffy cumulus clouds, or chasing geese in the fall, or landing on a sod field to grab a hamburger with some fellow low-and-slow types. That is what flying is all about to me.