Will it work?
 

Hi Guys. I have a project in mind and wondered if any of you can tell me if it sounds good to you. I have a .40 size Nieuport 28 that I would like to convert to electric the least expensive way possible. It has a 56" span and 806 square inches of wing area. With a glow engine and extra weight in the nose for balance it weighed just under 7 lbs. I don't know what it would weigh with electric power. With the batteries up front, I shouldn't need the added weights.
On his site, I saw Greg Covey's Taube with the Kyosho RC car motor and I think that is the way I would like to go. Endoplasma motor, Great Planes GD600 gearbox geared 4.6:1, 10 or 12cell-3000 mah Nimh.
What speed control would I need? Electrifly 50 amp?
What kind of flight times could I expect? I would like to get 8 to 10 minutes if possible.
Please let me know what you think and any different ideas you might have.
Thanks!

RE: Will it work?
 

Generally, if you compare wing area and weight of a known setup to the plane you're trying to power, you can get a good idea of whether or not it will work. I believe Greg's Taube is much smaller and quite a bit lighter than that. Most important is that it's about 2lbs LIGHTER.

One of the schools of thought in electric is power loading, or Watts per pound of all-up weight. The Endoplasma system is only capable of 400 Watts, and that's an inefficient brushed motor 400 Watts...

This system won't increase the weight of the airplane over a .40 glow and full fuel load, so if you change nothing else, you'll come out at 7lbs. 400 Watts on 7lbs is 57 Watts per pound. With a brushless motor, you'd get scale flight, but on the Endoplasma, it's going to be anemic.

Is the plane you want to convert built yet? If you make every effort to save weight, and build a custom battery pack to mount forward of the firewall, you should be able to eliminate a few ounces of structure, and ALL the nose weight you needed to add with the glow engine. Get the plane down in the 6lb range, or less, and the Endoplasma just might be enough.

Replace the Endoplasma with an AXi 2820/10, same battery, same prop, and you'll be much better off. If you compare the cost of an AXi combo at Hobby Lobby to the cost of a quality 4-stroke glow engine, it's not that much different.

RE: Will it work?
 

Matt, thanks for your input. I kind of figured it would be heavy for that motor. I really don't want to spend the kind of money that brushless costs, although the ones from Hobby lobby are pretty reasonable compared to others I have seen
The plane is all built and would be hard to take much weight out of it now. Maybe i'll try another project or just stick with park flyers.
Thanks again.
Rob

RE: Will it work?
 

Just for reference, this Endoplasma system is a fairly good drop-in replacement for a .25 glow, and works on "floater" type planes up to 5lbs.

RE: Will it work?
 

I have a Pilot Nieuport 28 in the building queue for electric conversion this fall. It's designed for a glow .40-.60. I have a Mega brushless 22/30/3 motor and 3.6:1 gearing to put in it, with 12 to 14 cells. I've run this setup across a few experts and Motocalc and all seem to agree that it will work fine. I had also considered the Endo motor for it, but everyone said that it wouldn't be enough, at around 400w out max.
I will lighten the airframe where I can, but there isn't a lot that I can do with the kit, aside from substituting thinner/lighter ply in some areas like the firewall and formers, and maybe some lighter balsa sheet.

Hope this helps.

Rick