Hi Guy's

I just saw the new Yellow Aircraft Stingray at Toledo yesterday. Nice looking aircraft in the Hotspot/Kangeroo genre. A little smaller than both and only intended for the smaller turbines. The molding was excellent with a recessed area for a dorsal speedbrake. The verticle stabs are molded and attached to the top of the fuselage/wing instead of being sandwiched between the wing and fuselage. The verticle stabs have ample room for the required rudder servos. Dry weight should be 12 lbs. It seemed well priced at $395 USD. Available in July. I WANT ONE !

wow, me too!!! I like it!

WOW, very cool pic, I wonder if anyone else can load pic's of the toledo show, specificly the YELLOW display jets,

regards, scott

Heck with the Stingray, give me that F-18 in the background!!!!!

aahhh, YYEEAAHHHH

that F-18 is incredable, but I wonder what else YELLOW had on display, as I don't get to go to the show, and would love to see pic's of all the display's, including other manufactures .

regards, scott

Any Idea when the Stingray will be for sale?

They said July..

Just got back from Toledo. I love that Stingray!

The Yellow Aircraft booth was awesome, that F-18 was gorgeous and the price incredible. With the scale gear and everything else besides engine it comes out to less than $3,000!

The Stingray was incredibly cool. The price will be only $395 for the airplane and $140 for the gear, which is of high quality aluminum and suitable for grass. I thought the fuselage material was a bit thin, I could buckle it in and out easily with one finger, I am hoping the reason is that the required formers were not installed yet.

Not a lot of jet stuff at the show, but RAM, AMT and SWB were there. The new SWB Mamba is beautiful and available at $2495.This is one gorgeous little engine, the machining and quality is incredible. Thrust is 11 pounds, de-rated from 14 for reliability. Very smart! At full thrust the engine only turns 150,000 rpm which is very reasonable for a small turbine.

It is strictly air-start, but requires only 90-100 psi for start, so you can use a small tank. SWB plans to offer a little starting tank for it that can be pumped up by hand or at the gas station, no scuba tank required. The start is fully automatic, just turn on the air and that's it. This could very well turn out to be the next "must have" turbine toy. Very, very impressive! I talked to Jeff from SWB and he plans to put one in a Stingray. Can't wait to hear how it works out.

747 driver,

Your digital camera takes nice pictures! What kind do you have?

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with it but it's only a 3 yr old Olympus D-400. 1.3 Megapixel. I almost bought a new geewiz 3.3 mp camera but thought why bother. 90% of my shots are low res shots like the one at the top of the thread and my present camera seems to do just fine.

Do you have a small turbine looking for work? I was really excited when I saw the Stingray. IMO better looking than the Hotspot and certainly the Kangaroo and a little smaller than both for more zoominess on the 12 lb'ers. I should have some other projects cleared up by the time the Stingray is available and am very serious about building one.

747 driver,

I agree, the Stingray is a gorgeous little bird, it really is better looking than a HotSpot and you know how much I like my HotSpot! From an aesthetic point of view they really nailed it, everything is in proportion. There is an old aviation saying that if it looks right it flies right, I guess we'll just have to see.

Don't have a small turbine yet, but think it would be neat to have one and little "one piece" jet to go with it. I really like the "mini" price too.

Right now not much is known about the Stingray. Charles at Yellow Aircraft says only the designer has flown it. Unfortunately it's going to be a while before the Stingray gets flying, same goes for the Mamba and Simjet 1200.

"Right now not much is known about the Stingray. Charles at Yellow Aircraft says only the designer has flown it. Unfortunately it's going to be a while before the Stingray gets flying, same goes for the Mamba and Simjet 1200."

I'm going to try to contact the designer. Apparently , he lives very close to me in Toronto. When you say a while what do you mean ? Charles told me perhaps June . As for the engines, us Canadians don't have to wait for no stinkin approval mang !

A recent posting showed a Hotspot with small canards. I'm thinking this bird would look pretty mean with anhedral canards. Yah, yah, I know. Voids all manufacturers warranties etc....

Just from looking at it, I think the Stingray is going to need canards. There's alot of nose hanging out there.
Is there one flying yet, I'd be interested in seeing how smooth it'll rotate and if they can keep the nose up at slow speeds????
It does look great, like a little sports car. The price is right too.
Chris Z

Regardless how long the nose is , it still has to balance at the same percent MAC. Rotation has more to do with proper landing gear placement wrt cg. I would put canards on just to look cool

I saw the Y/A Stingray at Toledo and I was extremely impressed with the light weight design. I gathered that it is a turbine trainer for the small (Ram 500, Wren 54, etc.) turbines. Unfortunately it was too busy at the booth to get my questions answered when I was there so I'll post here and hope someone can fill in the blanks.

Will it be possible to fly it first with an IC engine and prop or DF in order to get "waiver qualified"?

Is the retractable gear custom made?

How much do the retracts weigh?

How many servos are required? What type?

Are the wings removeable for transport/storage?

What will be needed to finish the kit aside from radio, engine, and standard modeling supplies?

Will the instructions detail making the speedbrake functional?

Thank you for taking the time to read my post and (hopefully) answer my questions. As you can probably deduce I am considering this as a first turbine jet. I have some DF experience with a Byron Mig. It doesn't quite reach the speed necessary to qualify for a waiver. I'd like to be able to use this plane to build my 150+ mph experience then transition into a turbine later.

Will it be possible to fly it first with an IC engine and prop or DF in order to get "waiver qualified"?

A- Anything is possible but I'm sure it's not designed for that . DF would probably work. I think prop clearance would be an issue as a pusher. At least with thje intended LG length.

Is the retractable gear custom made?

A- Yellow was offering a sport gear for $140


How much do the retracts weigh?

A-They looked to be relatively light. Shouldn't be that much of an issue on an aircraft of this type.

How many servos are required? What type?

A- Best guess 7 . 4 primary flight controls, 1 speedbrake, 1 retracts, 1 brakes.

Are the wings removeable for transport/storage?

A- Yes, as well as the vertical stabs.


What will be needed to finish the kit aside from radio, engine, and standard modeling supplies?

A-Time and patience

Will the instructions detail making the speedbrake functional?

A-It is designed with a recessed area behind the cockpit for a speedbrake so I would think that they would tell you a little something about it.


Being Canadian, I'm not that sure about the experience requirements for the waiver. My feeling is that you might be barking up the wrong tree trying an IC engine on this thing. I'm also not sure about the term "turbine trainer" This airplane may be smaller and cute and made for a small turbine but I'm sure it will be VERY fast ! I'm building a Mick Reeves Super Reaper as my turbine trainer. A bit of a boat but it certainly will be managable and unsophisticated.

real deal,

I can a answer a few of those questions. The gear was on display, I don't know if it is custom made but Charles said it was made of aircraft grade aluminum and suitable for grass. It looked pretty nice and appeared light. Servos should be same as HotSpot, one on each elevon, one for each rudder, one for speedbrake and one for nosewheel assuming electronic valves are used for gear and brakes. The wings are removeable and use a machined aluminum "I beam" type spar. There is a cutout for speedbrake, but I have found with my HotSpot that the speedbrake is unecessary. The most important thing is getting the airplane slowed way down in a nose-high attitude for approach and landing. I do not use the speedbrake to slow down, throwing it out at high speed is a good way to strip gears even on an 8411. Once you are in nose-high slow flight the speedbrake adds very little drag. Compared to the enormous induced drag of the high angle of attack the parasite drag of the speedbrake is next to nothing, definitely not enough to allow a "power on" approach into a short field.

As for use as a trainer, hard to say, depends on the weight. If it turns out a featherweight you might be able to get it slowed down enough to use as a trainer, but if the wing loading is high it may take some experience to handle it. In any case it is small enough that you should be able to hang a two-stroke glow engine on there and fly it around as a pusher. With a turbine weight will be a factor. This is a case where it might pay to put up with air starting and go with the Mamba as it only weighs 1 lb 12 oz. I don't know what the RAM 500 or Simjet 1200 weigh with and without electric start. Anybody know?


747 driver,

That would be fantastic if you get some info from the designer. I guess it won't be till at least mid-summer before we see some flying if the first production models show up in June. I know the SWB people plan to fly one with a Mamba. Keep us posted if you get any more info on the Stingray.

realdeal wrote:
"Will it be possible to fly it first with an IC engine "


I hate to sound like a real dummy.....but what do you mean by "IC engine" ????
JA

Internal Combustion Engine---i.e........two or four stroke glow, deisel, methanol, propane, or gasoline engines, etc........

[QUOTE]Originally posted by realdeal
[B]Will it be possible to fly it first with an IC engine and prop or DF in order to get "waiver qualified"?

rcs1313 Wrote:
Internal Combustion Engine---i.e........two or four stroke glow, deisel, methanol, propane, or gasoline engines, etc........

Gotcha...
I thought it might mean Internal Combustion, but was not sure because it seemed to mean "as oppose to turbine ", which is, of course, an internal combustion engine.

Thanks for the clarification..
JA

I ordered one at the show from Christy Cim Lin (spelling?). She said it would be available in July. I have a Mamba going into a Super Reaper hopefully by the end of this month. The Stingray will be the second plane for the Mamba. BTW, they told me it would ship definitely by the end of this month.

Regards,

Larry

Where can we find more pictures of this thing!!! It is sweet!
Corey Reese