What's the maximum speed that a fighter scale aircraft can go? Do most of them use gasoline engines?

Don't really know how fast our planes really go. We had a guy come out to our field once with a radar gun and clock some planes. An average speed for the sport planes flying that day was 75mph. The fastest plane he clocked that day was Great Planes(?) Tamecat (wanttabe Tomcat) @128mph.
Scale warbirds come in all sizes, generaly scale warbirds have high wing loading thus the tendancy to build bigger ones. When you get into bigger models then the tendancy leans to gas engines, a lot of that is economics, my Q42 runs 15-20min on 16oz of gasoline/oil mix@$2.10gal, my Super Tiger 2000 runs 8 min on 16oz of glow fuel@$15gal.

Most of the planes I build have checked in just over 100mph on the gun IN LEVEL FLIGHT, some a bit more depending on engine and cleanliness of airframe. I find the biggest difference comes from hitting the right prop. A couple months ago Evan Quiros Rare Bear was clocked at 138mph at Bomber Field, but he is running a BME 102 twin. We had 3 other Bearcats there all with Q75s running about 100 to 110mph.

Evan's Rare bear really cooks, and that sound it makes. The other Bear Cats from La. also put on a great show at Bomber Field.

Vince

Vince...L454S....I think your rough estimate of 100mph or so is about right....My TF P-51 with G-62 has been "gunned" @ 105mph..its just slightly faster than my "Z" F4U,P-47 and B-25......Bill....

We have several guys at our field that pylon race with war birds myself included. We all have planes that turn in the 125's to the 148-150's on a daily flight. We are running YS 63's thru YS 140's with hot fuels at times. And Yes for all the non believers, these are level passes clocked with a $1400.00+ radar gun. We fly P-51's, Spitfires, Yak 9's, and Sea Fury's. As for the Fuels, they are glow fuel engines @$25-$30+ a gal. We had one guy at the last race up from arizona that was running in the 160mph+.
As they say, The sky's the limit!!!

I have a Pica 1/6 scale (actually closer to 1/7) Spitfire with an OS .91 four-stroke. Turns a 14/6 prop about 10,300 RPM. It has been clocked at 95 MPH straight and level.

Just started flying a VQ Zero with a Magnum .61 two-stroke and 12/8 prop. It feels even faster! :stupid:

Both have retracts; the Spit has a 65" wing and the Zero is 62".

Check out my club's site at www.rcrcky.com

My Spitfire is the one with J E J on the side.
Warbirds Forever!

Hey Evan, Vince and Lenny....our big Ziroli Bearcat was clocked at 141 mph out of a split S ...51 pounds, running an 8.4 Air Hobbies with a 24x14 Clark laminated prop....that prop just kept on biting. Looking forward to catching up with you guys again at Bomber field. Of course, I hope I have better luck this year.