Ditto on everything you mentioned, except for this quote here. Yes, it's true that a few RVs have shed wings, but you gotta look a little deeper to get the whole picture. The early RV-3s have had a tendency to shed wings doing acro due to a somewhat weak design on the aft wing spar attach points... Van's recognized this and for older ships put out a beef-up kit for the rear attach points. Then he redesigned the whole wing to go out with newer kits.
The RV-4, 6, 7, and 8s have a good history, not much trouble. One of the prototype RV-8s did shed a wing during a demo flight; it was determined that the back seater just pulled the stick too hard; plus, that ship had an earlier wing spar design, which has since been replaced by a newer, stronger "Dash 1" wing. Load tested to 9 Gs but limited to 6... a few weeks ago I rode back seat in an 8 with an ex-Air Force guy; he did a 360 overhead pattern entry, pulled 5 Gs on the break, no problems. There are lots of ex- and current fighter guys that fly and dogfight RV-4s and they have no trouble with 'em.
So by all means, build an RV! RV-8 Quick Build taildragger, it's the only way to go. Then again, I'm biased... I just did the first flight on my 8 last week, what a rush!
As for the Thunder Mustang? Suh-weet! But ya better have a few truckloads of cash to pay for it!
