Mikel-t

My Feedback: (12)

As for NEW cool stuff that you would like to see being offered in the next couple of years ( besides more ARF's) like new radio gear or engines or tools. How about one servo that handles all push-rods by plug-in ( no arms or wheels ) let's get creative!, Mikel-T

rc-sport

My Feedback: (12)

Planes that never crash, kits that build themselves and batteries that always have a charge.

mtthomps

My Feedback: (2)

Batteries that I could charge at 10 amps current with no damage.

rockmon

A gas guage that would work like my light bar battery guage.

hookedonrc

Autopilot

trioval00

My Feedback: (17)

a fuel system that never needs refilling?

david a

A emergency parachute that automatically deploys if the battery fails.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

direct worm drive servos like the tiny indoor ones but for our stuff, more power, faster and totally linear travel.

also wing bolts that have a tab instead of a screwdriver head so my cold fingers can do it when I'm out gliding.

copyright phill 2003

Al Stein

I see lots of prefab stuff there, but us scratch builders need things too...

-- A new strain of Balsa that's all C-Grain
-- Another strain of balsa with no C-Grain
-- A stripper that doesn't follow wood grain and never gets dull
-- Hardware and fittings that cost LESS than the airframe they go on
-- A 2-1/2 axis CNC machine that's light weight, folds up to fit under a bed or in a closet, includes driver software and computer hookups, costs less than $200, and will cut parts out of wood up to 48" long [and since this is a wish list... If I order before midnight tonight I also want this limited-time offer to include free shipping, a complete set of spiral bound users guides and the universal sharpening tool that's also a can opener PLUS this 48-piece set of never-dull Ginsu knives!]

Tattoo

Of all the materials that companies have tried over the years for prefab easy fuselages (remember flitecraft?)...nothing seams to stand up to vibration and age and impact. The stuff gets brittle, cracks, and is hard to repair. Having been involved in combat over the years...who cares what they look like...one material has surpassed all this in durability...and that is whatever the heck wiffle ball bats are made out of. Some of the most popular combat planes (even sold as kits) are using actual wiffle ball bats as fuselages. The stuff is lighter than gutterpipe (another popular combat plane material) strong as heck, doesn't crack, takes a hell of a pounding...and if it does take a hit hard enough to bend or crease it...an hour or so later in the sun (or with a heat gun) and it pops back into shape. Now I don't know anything about plastic manufacturing, and I don't have a clue what the difference is between this stuff and the stuff flightcraft/Lanier/DuraPlane...but personally having used wiffle ball bats for combat planes over the last 3 years...the first guy to mold R/C aircraft fuselages with the exact same material and manufacturing processes that the wiffle ball bats use, is going to do real well.

Deadeye

Tattoo, that sounds like an excellent project for you to start on. A fuselage made of that stuff, and a coroplast wing, and we could crash for fun.

My brother used to fly a Flitecraft Shadow. It's ten years old now, and he recently started flying again. He had, what I would consider, a normal landing with it, and it simply shattered. There wasn't a piece of that fuselage that was more than a couple of inches square. I'm sure if he would've done anything radical in flight, it would've come apart in the air.

Mikel-t

My Feedback: (12)

You Guys are getting creative, WOW! Keep it up. SOOOO why is it that we build with such breakable stuff like Balsa? Is this just a carry over? or what? Seems to me that CA was not invented for hobby people it just found a market void and filled it ( no pun intended). Also what are the brightest and best building their next generation Predators out of? NOT BALSA I'm sure.

hookedonrc

I am new to this, but I think it may of come out of the fact that engine power to weight ratios have increased over the years. Many years ago, balsa was the best thing to use. Many of us "old" people remember the days when everything was made out of wood. TV sets, Stereos, etc, I am pretty sure weight was the issue. And personally for me the CA glues of today just weren't around. I actually remember the first super glue commercial where a guy was glued to a I-beam with a metal plate connect to his hard hat. This was a big deal when it came out.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

no.. that was just a Jackass episode

hookedonrc

Actually jackass would have skipped the helmet and metal plate and just glued the guy's head to it.

Perminator-RCU

They do exist, you know. I got two pairs with a Blackhorse ARF.

js3

My Feedback: (3)

I'd like to see an electronic on/off switch for the receiver pack so that we could do away with the clunky mechanical switch that we now use.

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

where do these wonders exist? where can i buy?
i saw a glider designer today and begged him too add something like this to his range after all it was his glider i wanted it on

they did use a helmet, over a vat of hair and oil, it didnt break, he let go lol

Tattoo

It's already been researched. It's out of my league. All it would take to get a company from building a mold to your specs, to handing you the first product is $40,000...and then it's only pennies per unit after that. I friend of mine involved in scale combat has also looked into this for 1/12 scale models. It's too bad someone influencial in the plastic industry wasn't an R/C'er. I know for a fact that a fuse made of this stuff, with coroplast wing and tail, designed correctly, could easily dominate today's ARF's in cost, simplicity, survivability, and performance. It's just a matter of time, and it's going to happen.

Mikel-t

My Feedback: (12)

Just by accident I flipped on the wings channel and saw a .60 sized surveilance plane being flown by a GI in the field. He landed it ( IT HAD NO WHEELS) brushed it off, smacked the wing with his hand and it came apart like interlocking blocks, then he did the same thing to the fuse and neatly slide the whole thing into a kind of wing bag and took-off zippo in 30 seconds. The narrator said the plane was a foam and Kevlar compound. WOW, When do you suppose those will be in the Army Surplus Stores?.

"What goes around, comes around" Mr. C.L. Stunt 1954

Sawyer692-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

How bout planes that would not be damaged by leaving them in the truck all week? I HATE unloading all of that $.it after a day at the field!

The_Matrix

How about a TR/RX combo that the RX sends the following data to the TR to be displayed. Amount of fuel left, Altitude, Airspeed, Engine RPM. Basic necessities, and should not be that difficult to produce.

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

How about some linear output servos, oops, that's not a new idea, Graupner USED to make some....

ZAGNUT

My Feedback: (1)

looks to me like the Flightcraft planes are just two vacuum formed halves glued together, and you don't need no $40,000 mold for this, a simple wooden plug will do. for some of my cast concrete projects i have vacuum formed molds made from my own plugs and it's dirt cheap. something like a fuselage woul cost me about $5 per half or much less if i had a bunch made. the guy i work with uses a variety of materials: styrene (crap) abs (alot better) and polycarbonate (lexan=indistructable).

i think the wiffle bats are either polyproplene or polyethelene (easy-hinges) but i don't know if these are vacuum formable but polycarbonate is and it's super tough.

dave

Cactus.

My Feedback: (1)

with the output on top of a 5K variable resistor, and pushed along by a worm drive i really don't see why these lightweight, simple, powerful and perfect for linear movement on surfaces devices arn't in EVERY! maunfactures product list.
HELL! i'd make them if i had the money

the only ones i know are are the Wes-tenik 2g ones 1/3 the weight of the Hi-tec feather