JA 37 Viggen

by FliteTest | April 29, 2013 | (55) Posted in Reviews


Here's the AJ 37 Viggen R/C airplane, a scratch built foam EDF plane made by our very own David Windestål.Modifying the plans by Johan Hansson, David made his own wooden templates and hot wire cut this plane piece by piece.The sections are all made with laser cut wood templates that were cut and then pieced together.It was a slow process creating this airplane as each section needed cut, sanded, glued and sanded again.The airplane was made with 4 inch blue foam and the same dollar tree foam board as our swappable planes

David did some fiberglassing around the intakes because of how thin the foam was. You can see the full build log of this project in David's article HERE.
Chad painted the scratch built airplane with an airbrush to create the control surfaces on the canards and add a nice weathered look.  

Also, check out the Weathered Plane episode to learn more about painting your airplane.This foam plane is light! It weighs in at about 820 grams.The ESC is on the bottom to keep it cool.This Viggen is setup with a 70mm fan with 10 blades which creates a nice "roar" sound instead of the "whiny" sound you usually get with EDF's.The side inlets are the only ones on here (no cheater holes) and in most cases that is usually a bad thing, but for this scratch built plane its no problem at all.There's no landing gear so it's hand launched and belly landing.
Despite the small wings, this airplane handled great in the air.  
The airplane is fast, we clocked this scratch built EDF at 80mph.

The stall charecteristics are fantastic! With a combination of the wind and the airplane's canards, Josh was able to get the plane to practically hover.

This airplane turned out to be a great scratch build and after the maiden, it's now Josh Bixler's favorite EDF.This project plane turned out great! The airplane handles great and it looks fantastic in the air.Hopefully we'll have a chance to take this plane out again in the near future!

The scratch build took David over 20 hours but the results were great!  If you'd like to build your own, be sure to look for the hot wire demonstration episode (available this Wednesday) and download the plans below!  

You can also check out Johan Hansson's original build article HERE!

The original plans, along with David's modified version, are available here:
JA 37 Viggen EDF Plans   

More photos available in the forum post HERE!  

COMMENTS

HenryB on April 29, 2013
Hi David i would love to see this with an afterburner, and moving canards also 120-150% size would be amazing
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casehatter on April 29, 2013
Ok Chad we need a pack of formers from that Lazer cutter you got, will be glad to pay for them so we can cut out our own David you never stop amazing me man..!! Would love to have one of these and I'm like Bixler I'm not a EDF fan but image three of these in the air with FPV in a formation or maybe a battle way cool..!!
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rcflyer729 on April 29, 2013
Yes I would pay 10$ or more for some of those formers!
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RCbacon on May 3, 2013
I would easy pay $20 for those formers :)
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devilsfork on April 29, 2013
Me too! Its very hard and time consuming getting formers cut to the precision of the laser jet! I would love to get my hands on some :).
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ghostrider03z on April 29, 2013
I can agree with that also, I would easily pay $10+, there literally is no other easy way to cut those pieces!
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ThePhoenix on April 30, 2013
hey,
i usually use normal cardboard for it. that works well too ;) and it is easy to print and cut out.
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FlyingMonkey on April 29, 2013
It was well worth the wait! Excellent episode guys.
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MidwestRob on April 29, 2013
Really nice build! Looks like a lot of fun to fly. Fantastic job on the paint job too.

BTW, I'm still waiting on the "Donate" button on the website.
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RCbacon on May 3, 2013
You can buy stuff on the store and send them to me ;) It is kinda like donating ;)
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liveyourdreamsRC on April 29, 2013
Along with the hot wire foam cutting could you do a small video on how Chad can make the airbrushing look so awesome? Great work Dave and Chad. I think you should find maybe another one like this or maybe alter the canards on a viggen so they can be controlled like elevons so you can almost do 3D! Also when is there going to be another episode on helicopters?
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OutcastZeroOne on April 29, 2013
very nice. I used the same hotwire technique to build my very first scratchbuild. Its not as hard as some may think, the real trick is getting those guides lined up right to make sure you get things strait. Awesome job David!
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Benn Gunn on April 29, 2013
David,
Very clever… as always..... your on the edge …. Thank you

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RCbacon on April 30, 2013
EDF LED afterburner would make this plane more awesome then it already is ;)
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Bondo 604 on April 30, 2013
in the plans there are no measurements for the height and width of each piece to be cut.were can I find these so I can build one.
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Testdummy on April 30, 2013
Perfect except it begs for an afterburner for crying out loud! ;)
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Sil20 on April 30, 2013
hi guys.
REally impressive pease of work this one.
Just you seemed to struggle with the "Canard". In french it means duck, maybe in sweedish also.
Do not pronounce it CONNARD which means morron or something like this...
Great Job!
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ThePhoenix on April 30, 2013
AWESOME!!!!! :)
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walt.p on April 30, 2013
Guys you have to find a way to make a kit for this jet ,. IT'S AWSOME !! ,for those of us who don't have the time to build and piece one together. There must be a way , you guys would sell a ton of these. I'd buy one or two. Fantastic job David !
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RCbacon on May 3, 2013
I would also think it would be awesome if they did this as a kit, but the package is gonna be HUGE! The other thing is that it will take some time to cut the pieces and i don´t think they will have the time to do that :(
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jrbemis on April 30, 2013
Just plane awesome! I may build it but it is too fast for me to fly. Great job!
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wingnut on April 30, 2013
You guys are on to a winner with this one. Formers "YES PLEASE". Great show.
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Good Kebo on April 30, 2013
I think your aerial copter to plane footage in this episode is your best so far...of course cool plane too.
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RCbacon on May 3, 2013
How shall i print the Viggen plans that David did? If i just print them, they are kinda small :( Please answer!
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Donch on May 5, 2013
Great work! And yes :FORMERS PLEASE!!!!!
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justplanenuts on May 14, 2013
I would love to build this beauty, but being new to the whole hobby I have no where to begin but cut foam. Is there a part list available for the electonics that make it all happen? I have researched out servos and EDF motors but it seems daunting. So is there a shopping list I should be looking at? How were the servos wired to provide elevator and aileron control from the same surface?

Thanks in advance.
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Fire1 on July 29, 2013
For when the f22 raptor version?
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jetbuilder on August 27, 2013
David
could u make an English version of the plans

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andtou on December 8, 2013
very nice,can I by the laser cut templates from you ?
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aerojunkie on March 16, 2014
Seems the common request is the same as mine...........laser cut former template pack. Any plans to offer those?
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NCC1701 on January 11, 2015
I have looked at your plans and build log. I am about 99% sure i'm going to do this build, but how do I print out these plans? I need to tile them of course, but how? I have done my research and found some foam, but it's not cheap! Do you think 24x48x4 inches thick of Dow's Styrofoam will be enough?
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kenviraj on January 14, 2015
can i have the tile printing version.
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lessman on February 15, 2015
ANYONE SCALE UP TO 90MM EDF?---Has anyone tried to scale up to a 90MM EDF? I have the drawings scaled but have not cut the templates yet. If you have ? How did your build go? How well does it fly?
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Pencon on March 29, 2015
You don't really need to cut the templates out of wood . A far easier way is to glue cut out paper templates onto cardboard poster board with a light mist of 3M77 and then cut out the shapes . Once you have your templates all cut out of the cardboard re ist with 3m77 and align them on the foam blocks and guide the Hotwire around them . I'd use the same 3m77 to glue the parts together just a couple light coats on both parts and wait until very tacky . Newspaper and white glue is a strong very light covering and dirt cheap .Then prime and sand a few times and it'll turn out awesome .
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grahamm on April 4, 2015
Hi David

Plane looks amazing!
I would like to start this as my next project, I built your foam fold Viggen but would like to try this too. I just can't seem to find any way of knowing the length of each piece... Can you tell me where to look for size of each piece/segment?

Thanks!
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Amiyr Ahmad on September 26, 2015
where do I get blue core foam?
thanks. Trying to build wating on foam board.


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Kostas on August 5, 2016
Hi guys!!I think....that F part is the point that it says how exactly you should find the diameter of your suitable motor guys!! i want to build that bird with changesun 50mm 11 blades and i study a lot and i noticed that this is the exact point!! the F point is the right point to get some serious info about your length of your bird! The lenght of the bird for 50mm motors are 68cm long! i will build this and i will show you pic of my attempt
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JA 37 Viggen