One thing I love about this hobby is that one size doesn’t fit all and there’s room for imagination. When first getting into jets some 13-14 years ago I (heavily) modified a Great Planes Giant Stik for turbine power. The wing was substantially beefed up and the fuse wound up about half scratch-built, mostly from the wing forward. It weighed 22 lbs wet but due to the generous wing area flew just fine on a P-60 with only 13 lbs thrust.

I recently completed V2 of that “What if Anthony Fokker had a jet engine in 1918?” concept, this time building a larger fuse and empennage entirely from scratch. Think of a Fokker E-III-J and you get the idea. Weighs in at 26.5 lbs wet (28 with smoke) and is pushed by a Xicoy 120 de-rated to a 90 a t2-lbs thrust. No surprise, it is cake to fly and feels just like a heavy, kinda-fast Giant Stik…probably because that’s exactly what it is :-)

It’s not everyone’s cup of tea of course, but I like to think that Phil Kraft would have approved and I certainly enjoy the (usually positive) “What the heck…” responses at the field and…as I said, I love the room for imagination that the hobby provides :-)