Montague
Posts: 4653
Joined: 4/19/2002
From: Laurel, MD,
Status: offline
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The Panther was pretty good when it came out, but I haven't flown against one in quite a while. They are as durable as advertised though. They also give up some wingspan to many of the current planes. However, if flown to their strengths, they can give some folks trouble. If I recall, the Panter has a symetrical airfoil, while most combat planes don't. This means that they don't turn inside quite as well as some other designs might, but if you get good at outside loops and turns and use them at least 50% of the time, you can drive other guys nuts.
Flying wings in general have advantages and disadvantages. If you have time to build and maintain them, they can be built to turn with anything out there and are often faster than conventional planes. There is less parasitic drag, and you can put all the weight in to wing area. But you need to put in the time and have the attention to detail to keep them setup right and in trim.
On the down side, flying wings tend to be less tolerant of damage and harder to field repair and keep flying right. If you bend a pushrod or get something knocked loose, you're pretty much going to crash, while a conventional plane can fly around with a missing aileron and half the stab/elevator gone. Also, wings are often more sensitive to setup and things like small warps in the wing or control surfaces.
I've seen several guys build a small fleet of wings and fly great for a contest. Then, as the planes get the normal dings and dents and battle damage, they do nothing but struggle and start zeroing a lot of rounds since they can't seem to get anything to fly right again. Basically, a well-trimmed and setup wing can be a challenge to fly against. A wing setup by someone who doesn't really know their stuff is going to a target, if you can get to it before it augers in.
And finally, many flying wings don't lend themselves to replaceable parts well. In my conventional designs, I have everything in the fuse except for the aileron servos. This allows me to have lots of spare wings for just the cost of the servo. Fuses don't break nearly as often as wings do, so being able to interchange parts and replace wings gives me the ability to last though a long contest when I'm having a bad day mid-air wise. Some guys have developed flying wings where the wing portion is seperate from the engine pod, but it still seems to take them longer to change parts out, it looks more like something you'd do in the shop than between rounds.
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Kirk Montague Adams
RCCA 560
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