Scratch Built Fighter Jet

by APlane | June 4, 2014 | (6) Posted in Projects

Hello All! This is an RC Fighter Jet I built from $Tree FoamBoard. Be sure to watch the flight video at the end of this article, and here is an Overview Video:

 Here are the SPECS:

Length: 30"
Wingspan: 44"
Horizontal Stabilizer: 16"x6" w/ 2.5" Elevator
Weight: 900g w/ battery


Motor: Turnigy Park 480 850kv w/ 10x7 prop.
ESC: Turnigy 30A Plush
Receiver: OrangeRx R620
Servos: (4) Turnigy 9018MG
Battery: Turnigy 1800mAh 3S 30c LiPo

Flight Time: 6-7min per battery.

 

Background Info

 This plane grew from my frustration with my previous plane. Before this, and before winter, I had a scratch built plane that had the motor in the normal front position. I crashed and broke the motor shaft. So all winter I was wanting to build one with the motor in the back to prevent this from happening again. I drew up designs for a twin boom pusher plane with the motor mounted high above the CG. This was a bad idea. On the first flight it was very pitchy and required a lot of up trim. It crashed eventually due to the incorrect thrust angle. this angered me because I had spent all winter looking at the plane because I had no good weather to fly in. 

The last time I flew the Twin-Boom it crashed as soon as I threw it. The wing cracked, and the nose was crumbled up. I knew it was a bad design. So that night, I drew up designs for a fighter jet styled plane with the motor still in the rear, but in line with the CG. 

 

Construction

First, I used one sheet of foamboard to make the main wing. I cut out the Ailerons, and the hole for the propeller. I also cut out the sides to give it a delta shape. 

 

Next, I cut out another delta shaped piece with a propeller slot, but this one was a little smaller. I did this so when I glued them together it would create a kfm-2 stepped airfoil. The smaller slot is for a wooden stick I'm using as a spar.

 

Here I have glued the 2 pieces together, and added plenty of spars for support.

 

Now, I began building the base for the nose fuselage.

 

I have added a 4x3 inch fuselage tube in the front. This will hold the battery, ESC, reciever, and motor. The green foam is the firewall.

 

Here is the finished shell with out electronics. I used FliteTest's collapsible nose idea from the Viggen, for this plane, and I can remove it if I need to.

 

Now it is time for the electronics. You can see I have glued on the 2 aileron servos, and ran wires to the back for the elevator servo. The orangerx reciever is also installed.

 

The elevator servo is added, and I have began coloring the jet with duck tape.

 

The motor is attached to a motor mount made of popsicle sticks. (see my CESSNA article to get a closer view of my motor mounts). The 3 pushrods are also added to the servos. I used old gift cards as control horns.


Here is the finished plane. I added a canopy to the hatch and connected 2 carbon fiber strips from the tail to the front to prevent the plane from flexing since there is a large hole in the center for the propeller. I named it N00BA2, as it was the second plane I built. the BA stands for my initials.

 Overall the plane flew great. You had to keep the speed up or fly at very high Angle of attacks to remain aloft. Flight times were short due to always using full throttle.

 Here is the Flight Video. Enjoy!

Thanks For Reading and Watching!

-BrockAC

www.youtube.com/aplanerc

COMMENTS

NoUsername on July 25, 2014
Fantastic job and love the design. It looks like it flys slow. Again, great job.
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Scratch Built Fighter Jet