More progress on the 301 Frontier Airliner.

Some may not have seen our models before or understand EDFmodel’s building philosophy. The two photos perhaps give one insight.

Once the major subassemblies for the fuselage are complete they are then all assembled to produce the complete fuselage. No glues are used in bringing the sub assemblies together.

If a model suffers damage at the airfield there can be nothing more frustrating than cutting and re-gluing bits and pieces. A repair should not take so much time and effort that it destroys the modeller’s enthusiasm. My view is models should quickly come apart for inspection and part maintenance. Additionally, upon impact much energy can be dissipated before any serious damage is done because parts can ‘give’ a little. Nylon screws pop out for example.

The challenge is to actually fly the model and keep it flying.

My dislike of balsa comes about because of the need to start “butt-gluing” wood together forming rigid structures and ‘foamy’ type models tend to suffer that gradual hanger damage just putting them in the car. Another silly example is gluing landing gear legs to styrene wings in the hope they stay there on a rough landing.

I believe more energy in the model workshop should be directed toward developing better assembly technologies for the construction of electric models. One answer is designs that are modular which offer improved model impact resistance with ease of maintenance. Your model costs halve with every bad accident because generally you can repair the model.

I appreciate my views are not for everyone and so please no one take any offense.

Ian.