I thought about that, but it can get expensive with a good charger and several battery packs to keep it in the air throughout the day, and the wing loading would be much higher.

I think staying with an .049 is the way to go. Light (1.5oz), inexpensive ($50), and 12 minutes of flight time on one fluid ounce of fuel sounds pretty appealing to me. A tuned pipe (worth the weight in performance and sound) directed through the ship can keep things pretty clean, too.