OK, I got a flip as my first plane designed for 3d.. I'm usually a pattern guy, but this thing is awesome. But it has gotten me to think about how to take the envelope much further. Don't know if this is possible or if anybody has tried this, but here is the idea...

Build a 3d airplane with a huge, fully collective and cyclic, reduction driven prop. The concept here would be to build an airplane with a helicopter main rotor system as a propulsion source. Perhaps cutting the rotor span down to about 24" or so and building the plane with lots of prop clearance.

Seems like this could be pulled off with a scrapped .60 rotor mechanism and a good 60-1.20 sized 3d platform. I don't know what all of the technical challenges would be yet, but I think with some effort it could be done. It seems like you could use some creative mixes with the tail for full range cyclic / collective that would enhance pitch/yaw performance and lead to some really wild stuff.. Also constant speed prop, etc. etc..

Nose down hovers, continuous pinwheels, knife edge waterfalls, nose down slides, and dozens of cool moves that have never been named.

I know that the design would be heavier than typical 3d airplanes, but with a huge prop running lower RPM's, it should produce lots of thrust, and wing loading / etc. wouldn't be as important as you could thrust vector. Sounds crazy, but I might just try it as a winter project.. Anybody tried this? Thoughts???