Ed Waldrep

I'm finally ready to offer for sale my own-design scale laser-cut balsa and lite-ply retractable landing gear ready T-33 kit for sale after 3 months (well, 18 years in a way) of development. This 42 1/4"( 1073mm) span and 37"(940mm) long 55mm to 68mm Electric Ducted Fan radio controlled model jet kit is laser cut from lite-ply and balsa (around 21 laser-cut sheets total) and comes with a vacuum formed canopy, a full sized wing plan, 50% side view plan, full size wing sheeting patterns, exhaust tube and cardstock inlet ducting patterns, 2 page parts layout guide, dvd-r with a PDF instruction manual with pictures, over 400 construction photos and a few videos. The fuselage cross-section and inlet size are scale. The fuselage is built with the “half shell” method, layed on it’s side on a ceiling tile and held in place with pins, over a crutch that aligns the bulkheads, and is partially sheeted with three laser-cut sheets (near the intake and over the wing) and the rest is strip-planked with 3/32" balsa strips. The laser cut parts include all the items to build the fuselage and wings except for a couple of 1/8” balsa stringers and the 1/16” balsa wing sheeting (patterns provided) and the round parts of the inlet ducting (patterns provided). Parts to construct a rounded sanding block that matches the curve of the main part of the fuselage are supplied, this makes sanding the fuselage planks smooth much easier. The inlet ducting is constructed of cardstock/cereal or donut box/100 lb Bristol paper (Michaels craft store), with the inlet walls comprised of laser cut 1/16 balsa sheet. Retractable landing gear mounts are designed in from the start, with the Airpower RA-260 Micro air retracts used as the base equipment (there may be electric retracts that small but I don’t know of any at the moment). This version hasn't flown yet but I'm confident it will, a hand cut version flew in 2007 and this is the same design but without washout (washout can be built in by placing scrap wood under the rear of the building tabs, say 1/16" under R1A, then two layers of 1/16 under the building tab of R2, three layers under R3, and so on. The stall on T-33s can be quite vicious, tip stalling, but I wanted to try the no washout wing first and add NASA dropped leading edgess if necessary, they were used on the 90mm sized model and tamed the stall somewhat.

Here's a link to the thread on RCGroups where I spend most of my time, there's further info and photos of the airplane. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...e#post39097079

Update on retract choices: I just found some electric retracts at hobbyking that would work in this thing, just from a quick glance. They are not too tall (19mm of height where the retract unit sits, these are 16mm tall) and I think they'll fit between the wing ribs, and best of all, the strut retracts AWAY from the unit and the mechanism is on the other end of the retract, so it doesn't get in the way of the tire retracting and you could have a scale strut length and ground stance. Cool, may have to order some of these. https://hobbyking.com/en_us/turnigy-...E&gclsrc=aw.ds
SKU number is 107000158

Earlier versions of this design, which dates back to the year 2000, have flown successfully. A larger glass fuselage version flew in 2005 (the aluminum taped airplane pic is below, fiberglass fuselage short kit is available) and a same size balsa version build by a modeler in New York flew many times via hand launch in 2007. Pictures of those follow, the new version, which has scale-sized inlets, is nearing completion. Laser-cut parts that interlock to some degree make building and alignment much easier and quicker!
For pricing and information on ordering, email me at
[email protected]
or PM me at RCGROUPS username Ed Waldrep

There's some previous discussion of this and the upcoming 90mm glass version in this thread I started a few months ago:
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/show...s#post38418750

Ed Waldrep

I've been making some progress on the paint scheme. Masking is hard, I've been doing camo jobs for along time, less work, but this scheme was too pretty to resist. It's based on a full size T-33 from Elemendorf AFB in Alaska, it showed up in a google search.
Kit's are available! 65mm fan, 37 inches long, 42 inch span, laser cut balsa and ply. Contact me at [email protected] There's also a glass version, larger, 45 inches long, 90mm fan.