Fredsterman,

The basic issue not mentioned above is weight. Mechanical or air will work just fine for whatever application if designed right. The problem is that mechanicals get heavy or overly complicated for heavier weight airplanes. Either very large heavy servos become necessary, or complicated counterbalancing requiring more maintenance to keep the mechanism swinging freely. This why there are a variety of simple (cheep) mechanicals available for under 10 pounds, glow 60 size and down, but everything larger is pneumatic. Given the beating the average model gear takes, the mechanisms stay simple for practical reasons. There have been some beautiful electric drive jack screw types produced for large models but they never beat out the air systems in the hobby market place.

Multiflyer