I'm looking at buying a friends YA F/A-18 twin airframe which is completely biult and painted but setup for ducted fan.. The jet has never flown. Its the older kit with the green polyester fuselage.. Has anyone converted one of these to turbine?? Just wondering how much work is involved in making the airframe turbine ready??

I have seen a few of the old kits converted to turbine power successfully. The issue is that he old polyester kits were a bit heavier than the new epoxy kits and without the substantial carbon reinforcements of the new kit. I am sure shaun can shed some light here...

I remember seeing one at h st athan jet meet in 2001 flown by Geoff Whight, flew beautifully..

Hello:

have you the tanks ? or where can I find a photo of the kero tanks, in the Yellow web site not there are info enought.

Thanks in advance.
Carlos Márquez
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www.cmjets.blogspot.com

I haven't done the conversion but I did own one for awhile. The D/F version has a weak main wing bulkhead at the front of the engine hatch that MUST be reinforced for turbine use. There just isn't much strength in the area above the inlets.

Mine was converted long before I got it and was flown extensively. I gutted it when I got it, cleaned up the internals and built a new turbine mount. It weighed 35 pounds dry with a Merlin 160 and was a hoot to fly.

BTW Carlos, mine used 2 dubro 40oz tanks next to the turbine and a dubro 50 oz in front of the inlet

Carlos,
You can get Kevlar tanks from Jet Tech ( Gary Mueller)

I had some custom tanks made from jettech for an arrangement similar to Gary's.

Or you can get the tanks made for the F18 that hold 200oz and they sit in front of the intakes

Hi,

It's important to know which version of the green polyester one you have. There are two. Does yours have the stab shaft that goes all the way through the tail? Two-piece fuselage? Also, do you know how far the spars go into the wings?

Yes it has the shaft that runs across the rear of the fuselage.. I'm not sure if its a two piece fus..