Hello

I am trying to find out the world model speed record, I think here would be a good place to start but, now a days, we see gliders doing 232 MPH so Im not sure anymore!

Happy flying..

Zap

Check AMT website, under world speed record.
Held by a Bandit flown by Steve Elias in the UK.

Thats pretty fast, but I wonder if an F5B fitted with a brushless could beat that....

Thanks for your help Gray.

Something I don't understand, I've heard of gliders exceeding 200 mph, I don't know how that can be? Aren't they relying on just gravity to reach these speeds? and gravity falls at 32ft per second, per second. I don't know how to calculate this speed, but skydivers fall at an airspeed somewhere around 150mph, but I know they spread themselves to slow the decent. Not sure where I'm going with this at this point.

Frank, I think you spent too much time in that primer cloud in Mike's garage last night.

Joey.

Frank, do a search for "Dynamic Soaring" I think is the term. They make repeated looping dives through a wind eddy off the back side of a hill to continually build speed. I might not have all the particulars just so, but it will turn up in a search.

Hey Thanks Chuck

What's up "T" I did get kind of spacey

Due to the intriguing fact, that R/C jets simply don´t exist for the FAI (see http://records.fai.org/models/), there does not exist any official world model speed record any more. Not even in the Guinness Book of Records. Therefore, we are forced to go by unofficial and therefore unconfirmed data that can be found on the web.

The highest speed of a model aircraft (i.e. not an UAV built by professionals) about which I have heard so far has been flown at
571 km/h = 355 mph. See http://www.hessenbruch.de/niels/ (in German).

Peter

Interestingly, if you go check the FAI records the top speed for a glider is, if I remember correctly, well under 200 mph, yet over 20 years ago some one made a claim of something over 260 mph and tried to claim the FAI record. Goes to show the claims you hear do not always measure up to the truth when they are measured carefully.

Steven

To set the stage, I am also a big "glider guy" with over 30 years of R/C sailplane experience. Most "power" RC pilots never believe me when I say that my fastest model is a sailplane!

FAI speed records require a fairly long run, up and downwind, through a fixed course. DS soaring generally requires flying a tight, looping or circular course in the boundary layer between upward and downward air flow on a ridge (or simiar structure), gaining energy (i.e. speed) with every cycle - until the plane breaks or your nerves give up!

DS soaring therefore does not lend itself to FAI record attempts. I do believe the Sitar brothers exceeded 225 MPH in the late 70's/mid-80's in the Austrian Alps, using the climb high/dive through speed gates routine, and at least one run resulted in a 260+ MPH run that was not repeated in time for an official record. Remember, this was almost 25 or so years ago.

I have some DS experience and have personally come close to 200 MPH with a sailplane (my own design Peregrine and also with a carbon F3F Sting), as measured with a radar gun. I have seen several people here in SoCal exceed 225, and one "unofficial' DS run at over 250 at Parker Mountain by Joe Wurts....before a wing fluttered and literally exploded. 232 MPH is the official "unofficial" record at the moment; 300 MPH is not far off, airframes are the limiting factor.

Here's a video of the record run....the camera is NOT sped up, it's the cameraman trying to keep up with the glider..... [link=http://www.gliderking.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Downloads&file=index&r eq=getit&lid=42]Gary Legerton's 232 MPH record DS run [/link] Note the flutter and rtesulting destruction, with one panel fluttering down...

Barry

>>The highest speed of a model aircraft (i.e. not an UAV built by professionals) about which I have heard so far has been flown at
>>571 km/h = 355 mph. See http://www.hessenbruch.de/niels/ (in German).

I work with GPS all the time, at work, and there is no way you can use a GPS like that in a turn to measure
top speed.. It only samples once a sec and any fast vertical movements will just mess it up
even more.

There is no doute that is a fast plane, maybe the fastest, but top speed off a Garmin is
not a good indication of anything..

Eddie Weeks

Like Eddie said GPS means less than nothing in a model. Since at that speed you cover more than 100 metres a second (360kph) a +- 10m resolution (IF you have suffiecient satelites visible to your ever moving antenna) gives a 20% error at BEST.
On our high speed UAV there are mayor discrepancies in airspeed between GPS and pitot airspeed. If it was not for the INS capability of the autopilot you would have no idea of your position second to second in the small space models fly. GPS is just not good enough. DGPS is a lot better but systems suitable for aviation is very expensive and not as compact.
Andre Baird

Most of all, it goes to show the utility of official FAI records for finding out the truth. In these webtimes, falsely claiming an FAI record ought to be as useless as falsely claiming to be the president of the United States.

But what can you do, if an appropriate FAI record modality doesn´t even exist?
The point of my post was:
As we can see on http://records.fai.org/models/, there exist all sorts of record modalities for all types of model aircraft - exept for R/C jets. So the obvious question is....

NOW WHY WOULD THAT BE??

I think I know the answer, but for right now I prefer to hear the explanations of others...

Peter

Falling speed is only restricted by drag, terminal velocity of a skydiver is much slower when he is spread than when he forms a bullet shape.

The acceleration force due to gravity is 32ft per second per second or 9.81 newtons. in a vacuum every falling object would continue to accelerate forever (or instill it hit something!)

I have seen footage of the USA's early experiments with high altitude parachute drops. These were done from balloons at 100,000 feet + with the guy wearing a space suit.

If i remember correctly he reached speeds near to the speed of sound until the air thickened up and slowed him down.

L@@K [link=http://www.homeandleisure.co.uk/models/features/supermodels2/page5.html]http://www.homeandleisure.co.uk/models/features/supermodels2/page5.html[/link]

enough!

Hmm, 343 kmh = 212mph. Not bad for a piston engines plane back in the 70's. Most FAI or F1 pylon planes are easily capable of these speeds if not more in a straight line. As for turbines, I'd say easily exceeded.

Maybe you missread the units?

Regards,
Tony

(was a member of the team who set the Guiness record with the bandit)

oops i did!, but sill its pretty impressive for the 70s! (i dont even think turbines existed then!)

600mph ?I found this on denmarks rcu.

where is the fuel tank?
600? How could he see it to fly it??

I don,t know anything about it. just found pic on denmarks rcu...text was in language of denmark. don,t speak denmark.

Yeah, goood story!


http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_38...C600mph/tm.htm

sorry, didn,t know it was old news

Appears like you´ve been a victim of AMA brainwashing ("there cannot be what DB and/or the AMA EC - those guys who know so much about jets [sm=lol.gif] - believe to be impossible" ). I´d take you serious if you would say that YOU could´nt control a jet at such speeds, and I cetainly couldn´t einher. Heck, I can´t even jump 8 meters wide!

But I am sure that neither you nor I are the yardstick of model air - nor any other type of - SPORTS.

Peter

In order to set a world record of any type, I believe, the FAI rule is a maximum WET weight of 5kg or 11 pounds. This includes the Maynard Hill et al crossing of the Atlantic recently. The closed course speed record of about 220+ mph (glider) was backed up by a run in the opposite direction, and as far as I know still stands. Apparently it was decided long ago that above 11 pounds a model ceases to be a model. If you want to set a record, you must be FAI legal; they are the sanctioning body of international aeromodelling.