Nitro Foamy
 

Have any of you considered building a nitro powered foamy? I'm thinking 48" wing - .46 - any thoughts on the idea?

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

You're kidding right? There is no way that foam would hold up. You'd have to put so much carbon into that thing just to keep it from twisting & breaking it would be WAY to heavy.

And then how are you going to get a good airfoil wing? Not going to happen. You might get one side to look reasonable and then botch the other side so badly that the plane will have a permanent roll.

Then we get to the issue of the foam being eaten by the fuel. Of course you could always seal it with automotive paint... but then again taht will eat the foam too.

How would you possibly attach the motor to the foam? a motor mount - right... how heavy is that going to be on the nose of this "thing"? you'll end up with a nose heavy chunk of foam that if it does get off the ground it will nose straight into mother earth.

I won't tell you not to, but come on - save the foam for the electric guys who think they have all the answers.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

:DThese Nitro powered Foamies aare great

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Minion.........it seems to me that your opinion of this subject is based on lack of information..lack of building skills, and probably lack of RC skills as well!!

Nitro does NOT attack styro..........

You don't need an airfoil...just a motor! (look at E-Fest. JR Fest, and dozens of pages in your AMA mag..if you get it)

The only carbon you need it a main rod down the middle, a ply motor mount, some Bi-Di tape, and Gorilla glue.

If you balance it right...and with enough power...even a bowling ball will fly!!

and by the way..........automotive paint will melt foam faster than cat on a squeeky toy!!

SHEEESH.another Expert heard from....

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Lack of information... building skills.. and RC skills?!?!?!

WOw - Ok Maniac - if foam is fuel safe then why havn't we been doing that all these years instaed of going through the painstaking process of covering our airplanes with monokote or ultrakote? Let's move on...

Don't need an airfoil? Maybe for those featherweights with micro electronics you might be able to get away with no lift - but we're talking a much heavier engine here. DUH

and back to the main rod - sure - use carbon fiber - why not. Then you have the weight issue again... or was that mentioned already? Yes, the parts will go together and according to your years of experience the foam is fuel safe... but lets look at the simple fact that the wing will flex - A LOT - because it is a slab of foam... or are you going to cover it in bulsa? or load it full of CF to keep it from looking like a sea gull?

And yes - I'm already believing that you have flown a bowling ball... it was probalby the best flying RC Toy you've ever had.

Why not put some rocket engines on it for added thrust at lift off?

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

I have seen several examples on (another profile website). They are using them for full contact combat, and are cut from the plans of regular profiles. They are cut from 1/2" to 1" thick insulation foam, most are using either yardsticks or carbon rods to reinforce the wing and fuse. I have been tempted to try it too, but haven't gotten around to clearing what I have on my building boards now.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

The thought of nitro on foam just blows my mind. I can remember when it took skills to build an airplane. Now you guys are tellling me that you can go to home depot, buy some foam & cut it up into an airplane?

IF it flies - I'm sure it won't fly worth a @#$#

And I'm sure it's a BIG IF

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

They got that coroplast stuff too.....

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

I've seen my fair share of the coroplast stuff - at least the coroplast has some strength to it and it still needed some reinforcing in the wing to keep it from folding up.

Maybe I'm jsut to narrow minded - but it seems that the idea of foam & nitro is taking the skill out of building. And now these guys are talking about re-writing all the rules that we have come to know about lift & areodynamics.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

There are very few model airplanes that fly on the wing like full scales do. That said the foamies, and the coroplasties, add another dimension to aerodynamics and it's amazing what we can do with them. A nitro powered foamie rienforced with carbon and kevlar really isn't far fetched and done right will fly very well. Not to jump on you like you did PCRC but I feel you were pretty wrong in some of your assumptions and opinions....

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

You're right. There's no reason to push the envelope or test out new techniques. Orville got it right the first time, and if it was good enough for him it's good enough for me.

Besides, no one builds any more. ;)

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Flat airfoils do fly, obviously, they just generate lift with AOA. They don't fly as well as an airfoil, though. No one is "redefining" aerodynamics here. From what I've heard & seen, the small flat wing foamies fly fine, but larger planes don't fly very well with flat wings... they tend to be too "pitchy" ( I believe this is because the change in lift near the neutral AOA is more gradual with an airfoil than with a flat wing). The OP asked about a nitro "foamy", not sure if he meant flat foam, or just a foam plane with perhaps an airfoil wing. Even if you are limited to flat blue foam for construction, you can actually build an airfoil by folding the flat foam (see my "foamies" below).

There are also small nitro engines that would be well suited for a light foam plane. If you target a .15, .10, or smaller, I don't think you'd be hard pressed to build a foam plane that could handle it. I've toyed with the idea of putting a .10 on a second version of the plane on the right in the photo. Since this photo was taken, I've glued a more sturdy plywood firewall on the front, and mounted the outrunner to that. A little more firewall reinforcing, and some CF for a main wing spar, and I believe it would handle a small nitro engine just fine.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Sorry to dis-agree with your assessment pkh.............but the larger FLAT wings fly just fine, with little or no pitchy tendencies. The secret is to round out the leading edges.

I just finished building a 48" 1/2inch pink foam Nirtro. I have a 55AX on the nose, and this thing flies as well as, if not better than 99% of the ARF profiles on the market today.

I took some video last week...let me see if I can upload it. Then you can look for "pitchy"...but you won't see any!!:D

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Ok Maniac, you say you built one and you say it's not pitchy - We're going to have to see some video. This I gotta see.

I won't be at all surprised to see soemthing along the lines of an inability to upload the video that you claim to have.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Here's something that I thought was very interesting... You may all want to take a good look at this one:
[link=http://portcityrcclub.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-1015]NITRO FOAMY VIDEO[/link]

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Our Web master loaded it for me....ENJOY:D

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Everyone knows a plane can't fly without wheels...
I must be photo shopped! :D

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Looks pretty nice to me! Got any up close photos of it?

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

I have a few construction shots.........

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Is that Sharpiekote or spray paint?

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

I used Krylon spray ..........but it takes a lot to cover the ugly foam, and of course adds a lot of weight!

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Been building these things for years. Nitro does not hurt the foam and the flat wings fly great. I've done some covered in vinyl, Monokote and just bare foam. I put in a few 1/4" hardwood dowels for spars and slap on the motor and go.

Super cheap fun.

Q

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

I concur. Sorry Evil Minion but you are very mistaken here. These style planes have been around for some time, although not very well advertised. And yes they fly extremely well. Popular for combat where you don't worry about the airframe after the battle. Slap your gear into another frame and go back at it.

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Sheesh...

I love it when I come on a website on here and a guy asks a simple question and someone calls them crazy and stupid only to be that themselves. It seems to me someone with the last name Lockheed (sound familiar??) said that big passenger jetliners would never be possible due to weight to power to size ration. looks like the same situation here, except Lockheed didn't have the wealth of information like minon did. All he had to do was look on the internet and find one of the many threads on this subject and then he wouldn't be prying both feet out of his @$$ through his mouth. Remember, don't shove both feet in you mouth at once because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

Brian

Why are people so ignorant?

RE: Nitro Foamy
 

Who would have ever though corrogated plastic sign material would fly and be so much fun! All hail the PBF!