95mph Clipped Wing FT Spitfire

by nerdnic | September 3, 2014 | (9) Posted in Projects

 

DETAILS

I have been playing around with my 800mm series planes trying to squeeze some more speed out of them. I'm able to hit over 100mph and so I thought, what if I can push a full size bird that fast? The normal FT Spitfire is one of my favorite planes but after tasting the sweet 100+ speeds it's hard to go back to only doing 80mph without wanting more. Maybe I'm just a speed junkie? With that being said, I've decided to try and spruce up the design a bit after my success with the 800mm Spitfire and Mustang.


SPECS

Motor
NTM 35-48 1100kv
Prop
10x10 APC
ESC
70a Dynam
Servo
EMAX ES08MA 12g Metal Gear
Battery
45C 2000mah 4S
TX/RX
FrSky Taranis/X8R + FLVS and GPS
Top Speed
95
AUW
900g


With this setup on the normal FT Spitfire and Mustang I pull 900w and around 70a out of the motor. The Spitfire tops out at 80mph and my FT Mustang hits 85mph. I am hoping to reach closer to 100 after the design changes.


PICS
After a bit of planning and measuring here is the basic idea of what each wing half will look like. The wing tip has been scored in various ways and I will be beveling pretty much every edge.

The two halves glued together with my aluminum spar. Servos are inside the wing for a really sleek look and feel.

Wing tips came out really nice.

Trailing edge is very clean and is a huge improvement over the standard design.

The wing took me a few hours to design and build but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Build completed, everything turned out great!


REVIEW
Pros
-Flies great
-Still handles the same as normal FT Spitfire
-Slow speed 'floatiness' still there
-Very fast and ultra quiet
-This motor is killer sounding. I love it.
-Wind performance is amazing
-Stable and is on rails 


Cons
-Wing is more difficult to build
-Depending on your tastes, it doesn't look as good compared to the stock FT Spitfire

All in all
Great modification to a great plane. My goal was to get more speed out of the same power set up and it worked. She's smoking fast and I love the deep sound of the motor.

Let me know what you guys think!

COMMENTS

fxfoley on October 7, 2014
Looking closely. I see a sj400L for $49 and the sj4000 for ~$60. Both Amazon. I can't see the difference yet between the 4000 and the 4000L.
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fxfoley on October 6, 2014
Hi Nick, Last week you showed me a camera that you temporarily mounted to a Spitfire. What's the make & model of that camera? Thanks & keep up the great work & see you soon.
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nerdnic on October 6, 2014
Hey! That was actually my nnChipmunk! I was using the sj4000, its about 70$ on Amazon. Footage came out great! Are you gonna buy one?
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Yogenh on September 14, 2014
I am with you it doesn't look as good as the full size but it is nice.

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Flying Fox on November 19, 2014
WOW nice
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aaronb on May 31, 2019

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95mph Clipped Wing FT Spitfire