Apart from working away on the .049 Boomerang (I am laying up the second half of the cowl mold tonight - yippee!) I have been puttering with a HET ME-163, which you might call a prop-jet but using that syntax, isn't it really a "prop-rocket". Whatever. They are a popular platform for overpowering and thrashing - see YT. I am building mine with an E-flite BL32 motor (Habu motor) and some battery
TBD.
So this thing has about 270 squares, 32"+- wingspan, very light glass/polyester layup but due to the egg shape it is actually plenty robust. I was in the process of glassing the wings to the airframe, when I realized that the whole thing is magically light and very stiff. At the same time I was spying an engine or two poking out of the bottom drawer, and a light came on. Why not..?
Oddly, with the engine and pipe taped in place it is almost in balance. Rx pack behind the CG and voila.. that was easy.
So online with iCare.. time to order another ME-163. This goes in the expanding production cue of glow conversions of lekkie airframes. Thanks to the proliferation of electric models, there is a wealth of stuff to cannibalize.
This will be an easy one, I figure 18-20 hours work.
- motor mount plate to match fuselage profile
- OPS .45 DF, QM40 prop (7.4 x 8-ish,
TBD)
- internal pipe tunnel, Al lithoplate and some insulation I think. The pipe nearly reaches to the rear end, so I'll graft in an exhaust duct.
- bladder tank mounted midships, in front of the spar puts about 1/3 behind the CG (that'll work)
- strip the covering from the wings, cut in some reflex, 3/4oz glass cloth, beef up ailerons
- beef up servos, hinges
- glass wings to fuselage
- new canopy from soft balsa and glass skin
All this sounds heavy but it's not. I am sure the dry weight will be under 3 pounds, putting wing loading in the low-mid 20's. Totally manageable.
