Sorry to jump in...couldn't hold it in any longer.

For several years, Nat Penton has been flying his own design Express on the precison aerobatics circuit.......his design incorporates flow staightening devices which of course add lateral stability and lifting area in knife edge flight. What's also important to note is the location of these flow straightening devices..their mean aerodynamic center is in line with that of the wing's mean aerodynamic center. Located along the centerline of the fuse.....not out away from the fuse, their mass and lifting effect is improved. Another extremely important benefit of the location and layout of this design is the fact that this plane flys with 0° right thrust and 0° downthrust.

His simple, light building techniques yield a very, very light, competitive, 78" long airplane that weighs 7lbs. 4oz. ready to fly! The original powered with an OS91fx, a new version powered with a YS110, and now an electric version flying with a Plettenburg outrunner (insane quiet power) are amazing to watch. Troy Newman borrowed Mr. Penton's electric version and took 1st place in FAI at a pattern contest in Houston, TX. The YS110 version was present as well. What happened after the contest was over really showed the capabilities of the design. Screwing around as it could be called, the two Express' planes performed amazingly tight, smooth, and precise knife edge square loops. In a stiff headwind after the contest on Sunday, one of the Express' held itself stationary over the runway in Knife Edge...then, the young, gifted pilot (Brett Wickizer) performed a positive snap back to it stationary position...then a negative snap...then a positive, negative, positive..you get the idea.

I have personally flown the YS powered version and have buried the rudder in a power off dive and the plane simply drives through a tight lateral curve. The wing design and tail arrangement result in ZERO coupling in yaw (flat turns like a 40% edge!) and zero mixes in knife edge flight.

There was a discussion about this plane some time ago here on rcu...
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_33...tm.htm#3328183


by the way...not try to bash anyone else's SFG's, which I believe are very cool when added to some of the planes shown here in this thread...just over-excited after getting to fly the express...