Actually, the Turbo Raven WAS a turbine. It was basically a Giles G 202 with a Pratt and Witney PT-6 in front driving a 4 blade, reversable prop (I think it was from a King Air). It did exceed 1-1 thrust to weight (quite signifigantly I believe).

I don't think the SU 31 exceeds 1-1. Many suuposed "Hover" maneuvers are in fact high alpha attitudes, but the wings are still providing a good proportion of the lift in conjunction with the vectored thrust of the prop.

I saw an aircraft advertised (a one-off experimental) that claimed it exceeded equity using a big-block Chevy engine through a reduction box. one interesting feature was that it could mix it's elevators with its ailerons (i.e. one up one down). Has anyone tried this with a model with two servos on the elevator?

The current high end competition aircraft (full sized that is) don't quite make 1-1, but I think the next generation probably will. That will be interesting. Years ago, full sized aerobatics was greatly ahead of models. Lomcevacs date back to the sixties and torque rolls to the early seventies. Very few modellers were doing these type of figures in the eighties. Since then, the lighter wing loading and much better power to weight of models has put them ahead. It will be interesting to see if the next crop of full-sized aircraft can catch up!

Oh, and I'd LOVE to have a drive of the turbine SU 26!!!!