I am heavy into spads lately and have tried most of the SSC designs for a 15 size engine. Everything comes out to heavy. No vertical. I need the finished airplane to be 2 lbs. or lighter in order to get the vertical I want. I would like to stick with standard servos so my fellow club members can all have the same plane (to stay competitive). I think a flying wing would be great but don't have the skills to try to design this on my own. Does anyone know of a spad or other plane that we could build fairly cheaply?

To make the SSC design fly well you need alot of wing area. 650" to 750" and at 2lbs 8oz. Its in the wing loading. So you are talking about a 64" wing with 11.5" cord. Once you start talking about that much coro your weight goes way up. I think a there are plans on line at spadtothebone.org . Look for the Sickle. Weight would be the biggest problem .
Foam wing are the lightest and strongest. If you have built all the SSC .15 I am sure you would have no problem cutting your own wings. I started out using a car battery and a 2x2 36" piece of wood for the bow with some music wire. Some learning curve but worth it.
Ron

Just built two Tufflight Panthers--flying wing made of EPP foam. I plan to fly in Open B and SSC with these birds. Weight with LA 15 is 2lbs 10 oz. Your post said you wanted to keep weight at 2 lbs or less. SSC rules call for at least 2.5 lbs and 400 square inches. The competive SSC pilots that I have seen stay as close to 2.5 lbs as possible and 17,500 rpm--also very important. Lighter wing loads are always the goal.

btw, check our www.tufflight.com for info on the Panther. They are about $55 plus shipping. Model cost not bad, but cost of the Icarex covering they endorse was suprisingly expensive. I used it and am very impressed with it--just which it was cheaper.

Good luck.

Greg