I would not 'touch AD models with a barge pole' after my experience with one of their kits. This is a summary of my review of the Angel sports jet by Aviation Design in 2007.

On my visit to the JMA meeting at Wroughton I heard that the wing on an AD phoenix split apart in the air. I also heard that the fuselage flexes when carried front to back. The plywood used in the model is of substantial thickness but there was not enough formers, ribs and glue around the joints. All in all I used 4 tubes of Hysol, half a bottle of epoxy and about 60 cl of liquid epoxy to enforce the model. The images at http://www.jetmodels.net/Angel.html tell the story of all the strengthing I had to do. Specially in front of the fuel bottle and around the retracts The plywood, though of reasonable thickness, needed glue to fill all the gaps between them and the fuselage skin.

The wings needed most strengthening as the pictures show. I was alarmed to find there was no spars in the middle of the wing. The wing relied for its strength on the skin. This was creased on one wing and could fold in flight with catastrophic results. Therefore I introduced a 6 mm balsa plywood spar to keep the skin in position and bind further the tube to the skin and to the only two ribs in the wing. I also poured resin to thicken the glue on the wings leading edge joint. There was very little glue there as the adhesive poured out of the leading edge during curinf..

Another worrying aspect of the model is the connection of the control surfaces. These are of the skin/surface connection type. The elevator has partly split. So did one flap and one aileron. There seems to be no special material holding these surfaces other than the fibre glass matting on one side. Rejoining these moving surfaces was a major problem and took many hours to sort. Another modeller flying an Aviation Design Mirage 2000 had both ailerons come off in flight at the same time. This was attributed to the use of soft balsa wood at the trailing edge which had split in flight. I had already decided to strengthen the trailing edge with fibre glass on the Angel. Again soft balsa is used for the trailing edge. I closed the front wheel well with thin plywood to isolate the inside from dirt thrown in by the front wheel. I also lined the wheel wells for the main wings to improve aerodynamics of the model and protect internals from dirt. Something that is standard on Chinese models.

As someone said this model will fly well as long as it does not fall apart. This proved to be the case. The sub-standard production quality can be improved with better supervision during production. Strutural strength and better finish could be easily achieved. I spent about 200 hours reinforcing and improving the model. As it stands the kit is not fit for the purpose even at £500 let alone the present cost of £1200 plus.

Mssa