olnico

Hello.
A little jewel just arrived at my door this morning. I couldn't resist to share the discovery of the kit.





I have a hard time to upload the pictures on the forum. So I made an assembly blog here:
http://www.ultimate-jets.net/blogs/j...assembly-day-1

And here is the dry text. Sorry for this...

have just received one of the first Aviation Design Scorpion Mk2 produced from the new Eastern Europe facility. The main difference from the previous Scorpion lies within the moulding technique. This model uses drilled airex that enables a very high level of resin absorption in the vacuum process. The resulting layup looks very close to prepreg and is very light.

I will detail the assembly process and give as many insights and tips as possible.



But first let's have a look at the kit, and the quality of the plane.





Here is a picture of the kit in the box. It is quite compact but well laid down and well protected. I did not get any damage during shipping.







All the composite parts show a high gloss finish. The leading edges are covered with a grey sticker reproducing a high lift device.

The moulding joint is on average 0,4 mm thick.



The wing:







The anti rotation pins are well glue and embedded in a hard wood block that goes from the lower to the upper laminates.







The flight control spar and rear wing spar are made of thick balsa and well glued. Not a single gluing discontinuity was observed on the entire plane. Some areas show a glue add-on which is a sign of a proper quality check.







The flaps, ailerons and rudder are hinged in the skin with a piece of hinging nylon fabric. The live hinging is well done and the babric did not exhibit any sign of cutting.







The rear fuselage looks really gorgeous with a very thin joint line.







The formers are either made from liteply ( not structural formers ) or aero grade Finnish birch plywood ( structural formers like the main wing and rear stabilizer-fins former ). All glue jonts were perfectly made.







The turbine rails are made of aero grade plywood and feature a vertical stringer. The rail has a series of tabs that are glued into the stringer. This results in an incredibly stiff engine mount. Note the drilled airex that shows very well on this picture and the quality of the rail plywood.







Here is a view of the rear stabilizer assembly. A bronze tube is embedded into a plywood box that is filled with a mix of resin and microspheres. An IC board finished the setup for maximum stiffness. This former is made of aero grade ply.







The fuselage hatch is well moulded and rigid. The hatch joint is thin. The speed brake is CNC pre-cut on the top of the hatch and a carbon fiber patch reinforces this area.







The nose is made the same way with a very ligth structure.









The nose gear plate is made of aero grade plywood with liteply vertical formers. Inserts are designed to setup the Behotec gear quickly. The front vertial former is reinforced by a glass fiber tape at its bottom.











The nose to rear fuselage assembly is snug and nice. There is almost no clearance between the two parts.









The thrust tube is made by Ilja Grum in Germany and feature a very light aluminium outer wall.







I borescoped the internal structure of the wings and fins. Here are the pictures:

Wing leading edge gluing.







Wing intermediate rib gluing.







Intermediate rib to wing tube gluing. This is the end of the wing tube. The hard wood blosk increases the effort spreading surface.





The wing root gluing at the wing tube.







There is a small zone without glue. This is the only spot where glue is missing on the entire plane. Not bad at all...





The fin tube is glued on a hard wood spar. The inner one goes all the way to the top of the fin. I could not get a picture of it with the borescope because of the poor optical quality with the mirror.





The fin leading edge gluing is perfect, just like the other flying surface.





I am going to the Xray machine tomorrow and will have some pictures of the stabilizer ( if the customs officer allows me to make such a picture on his machine ).

Here are a few pictures of the plane just dry fitted in the workshop. All the elements fit perfectly and it took me 3 minutes to assemble the shell.



And the best for the end. The mass estimate.

I scaled all the components as followed.

Left wing: 510 grs

Right wing: 522 grs

Left fin: 170 grs

Right fin: 155 grs

Left stab: 190 grs

R stab: 198 grs

Rear fuse: 2343 grs

Nose + canopy: 924 grs

Thrust tube: 265 grs

Hardware + pilot: 400 grs

Wing tube: 210 grs

Fuel Tank: 220 grs

Servos and receiver: 360 grs

Batteries: 350 grs

Merlin VT80 all up and 5 min of fuel: 2400 grs

Behotec gear: 900 grs


Total: 7720 grs for a takeoff thrust of about 8 kgs with the Merlin VT80...

Sparhawk

Initial pics look great. This one has always been on my radar and now that it's being made in the new factory, I may have to pull the trigger on one of these for next winter. The Swiss scheme looks fantastic.

Dan

olnico

Yes. It is also significantly lighter than the previous one, so that the Merlin VT-80 will give a power to weight ratio above 1:1.
This is a great news because to me this engine is the most achieved on the market and a represents a fantastic value for money. It is also the lightest in this class of thrust and by far.
I believe that this will make an extremely gentle plane. Having flown Scorpions at 9kgs all up weight and knowing how easy they are, I cannot wait to try this one at less than 7,5 kgs...

Delta Mike

My Feedback: (18)

Will the new company be offering the Super Scorpion?

Dennis

olnico

Yes. At a later stage. All the tooling is being completely redesigned. This takes some time.
The next one in the sequence is one really bad ass aerobatic plane that I have been designing over a period of 4 years: the SuperPhoenix. I will receive prototype #3 next week.
I love that thing. 7,5 kgs with the special edition Merlin 110 Gold. 100% muscle plane...

olnico

By the way, most announcements are made on our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ultim...23469480996666

Please don't hesitate to subscribe there. I'll be happy to see all my friends on this page.

PaulD

My Feedback: (39)

Oli,

Nice to see a build thread rather than a bunch of bashing. All I'm getting is the first 2 pictures. Was here more?

PaulD

Sparhawk

Full build and pics are here Paul: http://www.ultimate-jets.net/blogs/j...assembly-day-1

Dan

PaulD

My Feedback: (39)

I guess if I had read his thread I woulda figured that out. Thanks.[:@]

PaulD

sskianpour

My Feedback: (2)

Oli I have always wanted the Super Scorpion but was wary when I read the build and modifications needed and the poor reviews on construction.

I always heard that they fly superb ONCE all the building kinks are figured out. Now with the quality and guidance that you, barry, and other qualified players in the game are going to bring to the table, I am very excited about the new direction AD is heading and look forward to this build thread and news that the Super Scorpion Gen 2 is on the Horizon!

Happy building bud, and keep us in the loop!

Shaz

yeahbaby

My Feedback: (21)

I like the borescope Pix!!!! no hiding any poor glue joints! very nice

great looking jet, the red / white scheme looks great airborne

olnico

Thanks Shaz.
I will definitely keep you guys posted!
I am also very excited to get this bird flying. It feels so light once assembled...

olnico

I think that it is important to show what you get for your hard earn money. The quality process is such that I am not worried about getting some bad and some good kits.
This one was taken randomly out of the production line and is "near perfect" ( just this small glue discontinuity on the last wing borescope picture).

olnico

Second part, the speed brake:



http://www.ultimate-jets.net/blogs/j...assembly-day-2

I had the stabilizers Xrayed at the customs this afternoon but could not make a picture. The pivot tube is embedded into a plywood box. There is a rib at the end of it and an anti rotation pin that is inserted inside a hard wood block that is glued to the rib and upper/ lower skin. That looks good to me.

JPHen

My Feedback: (33)

Does the speedbrake need to be cut?

olnico

No. It is CNC pre-cut. You just need to cut the four tabs as shown on the picture above. Takes about 30 seconds.

DrScoles

My Feedback: (18)

Looks like a great value at $1400. Do you have prices on all the accessories?

noahb

My Feedback: (67)

This is what was sent to me:
The price list goes as followed:
Kit: 1290 USD white, 1442 USD painted
Clear canopy option: 50 USD
Cockpit detail single pilot: 55 USD
Behotec landing gear: 790 SD
Speed brake option: 55 USD
Kevlar fuel tank: 185 USD
Thrust pipe: 145 USD
Full set of protection housing ( wing, stab and rudders ): 143 USD

Shipping quote would require your zip code and location.

olnico

That's it.
I am also working on the new electric gear from Behotec. That would increase the price of the gear option by 15%, but this equipment is outstanding.

siclick33

Oli,

How does it compare with the old one? The pictures look nice but it's hard to compare the 2 just from photos? I assume that all the problems with excess glue/weight have been sorted? What about the quality of the layup compared with the previous version?

If all the quality issues have been sorted then I think this will be very popular.

PaulD

My Feedback: (39)

Had a look thru the pictures and it sure looks better than the one I owned, however, mine did not have any problems whatsoever with the structural, etc, just finish quality and weight issues.

It's a draggy airframe and even if it is built lighter, a 20 lb turbine will not push it to any kind of speed. Something like a Cheeta would be perfect.

Love that Swiss paint scheme.[8D]

PaulD

olnico

I published the weights. The airframe is 20% lighter than the previous one.
The gain is made through the use of high quality plywood with good adjustments ( CNC cut, meaning minimal glue joints ) and use of drilled airex ( optimal resin ratio ).
The hand laminate is not shiny, not dry. Just what it should be.
The moulding joints are 0.4 mm thick and the paint quality is excellent.

olnico

I will maiden it with the Merlin VT-80. We'll see how it goes.

FenderBean

Wow I'm not a sport jet fan but this one caught my eye before but doing research showed problems, but this version looks great. Is this quality guaranteed for all kits?

olnico

Yes.
This kit was randomly taken out of the production line. All the other kits are the same.