ssrc30

I am building a somewhat oddity of an airplane out of foam board and I need some suggestions on what I should maybe power this with. The dimensions are kind of weird as I wanted to make this thing a little strange and have it appear to defy the odds.

It will have a wingspan of about 60" by 20" as I am using 2 full sheets of 20" by 30" foam board with some spacers inserted to give the wing its shape. Fuselage will be about 30" long and have a diameter of about 5' by 5". The entire aircraft will be wrapped in duct tape. I am thinking I will run this on 3 channels, rudder, elevator and throttle.

Given the odd shape of this plane, I imagine it will need a considerable amount of power if it is to fly. Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Will post photos once construction is further along.

Thanks,

BMatthews

Actually you're thinking wrong. With all that wing area as long as it's not as draggy as a deployed parachute you might well be surprised at how little power it takes. In any event it's more about the weight of the model than the size.

I'm also thinking that you meant to type 5" by 5" and not 5' x 5"....

So basically you're building a foam Clancy Lazy Bee with some changes to make it your own. But the planform is the same. The Lazy Bees tend to fly well with fairly modest power. So despite your 60" span by 20" chord I'd suggest that a .40 2 stroke would be more than enough. Hell, if you shape a decent airfoil onto it I'll bet it would fly not badly with a .25 if the weight was down around 5'ish lbs. With 1100 plus square inches of wing area it really is just a big low aspect ratio glider with an engine after all.

ssrc30

Yes, I meant to say 5" lol. I was taking a look on SN Hobbies and I was thinking a E-flite Power 46 and 60 amp ESC might do the job nicely. I would like to keep it under 6 lbs if possible and so far it is looking like may get my wish. When all is said and done, this airframe is only costing me about $25 to build so I don't mind spending a little on new electronics since I will likely recycle them into another plane anyway, should this one meet an untimely ending. I think I will wait and order a prop later on since I still need to scratch build the landing gear and I'm not totally sure exactly how much clearance I will end up having once all is said and done. Thanks for the info, it is very useful.

BMatthews

If you are going electric and assuming you can keep the weight to around 5'ish lbs then even the Eflite .32 motor would work fine. But if you have future plans that would work out better with a .46 motor and battery setup then with all the wing area you have it'll certainly handle the little added weight.