I know this really isn't a warbird, but it's where it all started right!? Attached is a picture a friend of mine gave me who works in a patent office....it's a copy of a patent submitted in 1906 by the Wrights. It may be for thier wingwarping controls by the look of it. This is just a promotional postcard put out by the Patent Reproduction Company of Washington, DC. Thought it was kinda neat and fitting being that we are a few months away from the 100th anniversary of that historic flight!

Here is the 1909 Wright Military flyer...the first warbird

RCJones, The picture of the 09 flyer you posted is it yours? If so is it a dare kit? could you give me any info you have on it how well does it fly what motors and prop you use and how was it to build? I'm fixing to start on mine soon.

Monkeybone,
Yes it is the Dare Military flyer. I enjoyed the kit very much. In fact I would build another one. I covered it in tissue and dope. It was my first time using that. I think the most confusing part was getting the rigging correct. I didn't get it correct the first time. It looked ok but as you studied it you could see where it wasn't correct. I bought the GWS set up that was recommended. Servos, motor & speed control. I had issue with the speed control because it shut down the motors after about 15secs and this plane is NOT a power off glider. I also got rid of the nicads and used lithium AAAs to save weight and increase run time. The are available at Wal-mart.

My first flight was about 25secs and boy does it look cool in the air! The balance point on the instructions were right on the money. I was scared to let it go because its so fragile but with power you can grease in the landing. Its not responsive like a regular airplane so just go with big turns and gentle climb.

As for the props. They were too big and hit the rudder rigging. I had to cut them down. They are the cheapy orange props but I painted them grey. They also spins in the same direction. I thought they should spin opposite but thats not true.

I also talked to Pat Tritle when I had a question. He is the designer and very nice to talk to.

Choose a covering that is light. There is a light iron on covering if you want to go that way.

I am changing speed controls to a 5amp and hopefully the motors won't cut off anymore. When they did cut off I still had servo control but it nosed in cause I wasn't flying very high and couldn't get enough speed up to get the nose to lift before I hit the ground.

Monkeybone,
Feel free to ask me any questions about building. I can also shoot you some close up pics if you have questions during the building process. I know I did.

I was missing some parts (trailing edges) and I bought extra wood cause it didn't seem like there was enough of everything. The laser cut parts are great, and there are enough of those. Its the fuse or sled part that needed extra wood.

I'm about to start fixing the damage on mine, Its not much

You'll like this kit

Thanks for the info RCJones, I've got two GWS "A" drive motors for mine and a set of counter rotating props from MPI (that should fix the torque issue of the two motors spinning in the same direction) and a JETI 25A speed control. I also talked to Pat Tritle about the battery's so I'll either be going with the Kokam 2 cell 1500mAH LiPo's or the Thunder Power 2 cell 2100mAH pack. If you have any pictures you would like to share and it not be to much trouble to send I'd like to see them you can shoot some over to my e-mail address [email protected]

Pat told me the counter rotating props weren't necessary but I did want to do them. I tihnk your batter choice is good. I didn't want to spend too much but on batteries so I tried to keep it simple. I'll take some pics tonight

Thanks for the reply RCJones.. Looking forward to the pictures If you are interested in the counter rotation props you can get them here [link=http://www.maxxprod.com/]MPI[/link] the size of the props are 10x4.5 they are not listed on the site yet, you get 1-left hand and 1 right hand prop stock #EPP1045 $4.50

Crawl-n-Clod,
I didn't forget ya. Just been real busy. How is your progress going?

Dave