Actually Matt,.. that's not totally true. Here's a litte video of one of my first "larger" electric planes.

http://www.squid-ink.com/rc-photos/video/gwright2.zip

That's 64 inch span, over 1000 square inches, 4 lbs, and it's flying on a $20 endoplasma motor and 10 old-fashioned roundcells,.. panasonic 3000 nimh to be exact. Average flight time was 8 minutes. With current lipoly technology, it would have been 3.5 lbs (just changing the battery) with double the duration.