ORIGINAL: Stuart D
ORIGINAL: proparc
What you are saying then is that, the 40 to 50cc petrol size would voluntarily limit the wingspan?
No , IMHO the span is an ideal size and the engine would follow suite .
Stu
Before 1996, before the 2m-5 kilo limitations, there were several good sources of model kits all of which were reasonably priced at around 400$ give or take. And the Japanese wood kits by Kato and Yoshioka (both superb) were in the 300 range as I recall. The models were powered by 4 stroke YS's mainly which typically cost as much as the plane kits did.
Today, the sources have come down drastically, and cost has gone up 5X for a plane kit (ARF actually). Notwithstanding the latest efforts of two potential suppliers being discussed in RCU which promise reasonable cost, we've been in this higher escalating cost spiral that will always persist because we demand the extreme precision in the airframes.
In my view, change the existing rules and chances are better than average that the cost would escalate too. And IF that happens, watch the Pattern numbers drop even further. It probably will not kill the sport, but I think the market for the new offerings would dwindle enough such that no manufacturer would have an interest in staying in it.
What I'm saying is be careful what you wish for.
On the other hand, if I were to speculate, a 50-60 cc gas engine is capable of around 6HP today. That much power, assuming the engines were ported to give us mid range grunt with better carburetion than a walbro, would work very nicely in a model weighing 16-17 lbs give or take. As far as size, you can pack a lot of size in that weight....I'd take an educated guess and say 90-95" box. It would be very sporty...................