Junior
Ken Lawrence (2455 Grafton St., El Cajon CA 92020; email: [email protected]) built this Curtiss-Wright CW-1 Junior from Model Aviation Plan Number 994.
Junior weighs 40 ounces and has a 55-inch wingspan. Power comes from an ElectriFly Rimfire .10 with a Castle Creations Thunderbird 36 ESC. An Airtronics RDS8000 with Hitec servos controls the aircraft. Ken’s model is covered in silver 21st Century fabric on the wings and horizontal tail surfaces, and Krylon gloss hunter green spray for the fuselage, fin, and rudder.
Ken used Williams Brothers plastic cylinders to make up the dummy engine and he hand-cut all graphics from MonoKote trim sheets.
Blackbird
Walter Jensen (1267 S. 31st St., Manitowoc WI 54220; email: [email protected]) scratch-built this SR-71 from a picture he enlarged to 200%.
The Blackbird is 6.5 feet long and a Turnigy G60 400 Kv supplies power turning a 14-inch propeller. Top speed on this model is 45 mph and it handles well.
Bald Eagle
Leon Rosen (3285 Jessica Ln., Naples FL 34105; [email protected] designed and built a 30-inch Slow Flyer that he converted into this 7-foot Bald Eagle. Leon wrote:
“Stupid idea really, but with tenacity and 100-plus hours, the objective was achieved. I built the extended spruce and balsa fuselage over the original carbon-stick fuselage of the Slow Flyer, the new length governed by the wing chord, and covered the fuselage with Solartex.
“The wing is flat bottomed, achieved by cutting away the underside of the Slow Flyer wing and then adding gull-shaped extensions, which are removable using plastic wing bolts. The feathers were made with 1/32-inch sheet over a 1/16-inch frame. The wing covering is Litespan. Power is by E-Flite Power 15, and control of ailerons, elevator, and rudder is by a Spectrum 6i (I know eagles don’t have rudders).”
Butterfly
Bob Beutler (700 Park St., Boulder City NV 89005; email: [email protected]) shares his Butterfly with MA readers.
Shown here with Bob’s granddaughter, Elodie, this Butterfly aircraft was built from a vintage Craft-Air kit. An action figure and parachute deployment pod has recently been added to the bottom of the fuselage. This deployment pod contains a servo and was designed to fit the contour of the bottom of the fuselage.
Power is supplied by an O.S. 25LA two-stroke engine and the model spans 99 inches. Bob added a Sullivan tail wheel and the model’s flight is slow and graceful.
Nabu
Romi Lucas (10204 Ross Lake Dr., Peyton CO 80831; email: [email protected]) wrote:
“This plane was modeled and named for the Nabu Fighter featured in Episode I of the Star Wars Trilogy opening scene. Two E-flite Power 32 outrunner motors power this airframe.
“It is a delta wing with no rear stabilizer. It has retractable main landing gear and functional rudder. The top half of the fuselage is removable to access the batteries and other electronics.”
Four Star 40
Ryan Wheless (4683 S. House Rock Tr., Flagstaff AZ 86001; email: [email protected]), age 9, and his dad, Jeff, built this Four Star 40. It is the first build they have done.
Ryan wrote:
“It is a blast to fly and was a lot of fun to build. We got a lot of advice from our fellow Flagstaff Flyers and Dereck Woodward. The Four Star is a plane that will occupy us for a long time!
“It weighs 4.8 pounds with all the gear and batteries on it. It runs on an 860 Kv motor, 2 three-cell 3,800 mAh LiPos in series, and a 13 x 8 or 14 x 8 propeller, depending on our mood. We use a Futaba 7C radio with it. It does rolls really well. It is a great plane!”
Sig Hog Bipe
Greg Wozney (5 Grove St., Waldwick NJ 07463; email: [email protected]) shares his Sig Hog Bipe with readers.
The model, photographed by Doug Nasto, is a modified Hog converted to electric power. It has a Skyshark Lightning 75 motor and a 70-amp ESC. The Hog runs on six cells in series. Greg’s modifications include a turtledeck and canopy, fiberglass cowl and main gear, and redesigned tail feathers.
Heinkel 178 V-1
Tony Kameen (11045 Silver Run, Moreno Valley CA 92557; email: [email protected]) scratch-built this EDF project.
Tony started with a small three-view and accumulated all the information he could. This Heinkel 178 V-1 spans 40 inches and uses a three-phase power system. A 40-amp ESC is driven by an 11.1-volt LiPo. The fuselage is carved from blue foam and the paint is custom-mixed latex in the RLM 02 color.
The wing is conventional built-up balsa. The CG is determined by the location of the battery pack in the front of the airplane under the cockpit.
