De Havilland Vampire - FREE PLANS!

by JamesWhomsley | August 13, 2015 | (20) Posted in Reviews

 Video

 

 

 

Plans:

 

Fuselage 

 

 

Wings

 

 

Introduction:

 

This RC de Havilland Vampire is an all round great performer, capable of both good slow flying characteristics and extremely fast speeds. 

 

The plane comes in two editions: Firstly, the Standard EditionThis aircraft is more catered towards late beginner to intermediate pilots. It's FT inspired under cambered wingtips provide steady handling and predictable movements, while the smaller KV motor will still give you enough kick to perform impressive aerobatic manoeuvres. 

 

 

The second Edition, the Ludicrous Editionis just that; it is Ludicrously fast. The low KV motor is replaced with a beefier 3000kv 700 watt monster, capable of speeds in excess of 100mph. The under cambered wingtips are removed, lowering drag and thus decreasing the wingspan to that of a thoroughbred racer. Although this edition is less historically accurate, it provides a unique looking aircraft for those with the need for speed. 

 

 

However, it should be noted that the Ludicrous Edition is for those who are confident in their very good flying skills. High speeds make this thing very difficult to fly well, which sometimes leads to disaster. If you don't mind the compromise, you should keep the under cambered wingtips even with the Ludicrous Edition 3000kv motor if you are not confident in your abilities.

 

 

 

 

Build: 

 

Firstly get your materials in order and then we'll get started.

Note: These instructions are not extensive. If you have previously built numerous FT designs you should be able to fill in any gaps with your own knowledge. If you can't, and the plans and instructions are incomplete, don't hesitate to hit this article up with a comment to ask any questions! Together we can improve this in subsequent versions of this aircraft.

 

SPECS


WINGSPAN

41.5in

FUSE

30in

CHANNELS

3 (Can be made as a 4)

WEIGHT

 

Standard Edition

Without Battery - aprox 400g

With Battery - aprox 550g

Ludicrous Edition

Without Battery - approx 450g

With Battery - approx 650g

 

 

Materials and Electronics

 

Materials

2x sheets of 5mm Foam Board. 

1x sheet of poster board. 

1x square dowel or equivilent matirial such as aluminium for wing spar

30cm of Push rod

1x Carbon fiber spar (Ludicrous Edition only)

 

Electronics

 

(Standard Edition Setup)

1200kv NTM Propdrive motor - Link!

prop

30A ESC - Link!

2200 mAh 3s Battery - Link!

3x 9 gram servos - Link!

1x Servo Y harness

Reciever of your choice 

 

(Ludicrous Edition Setup)

3000kv NTM Propdrive Motor - Link!

5.5 x 4.3 prop Link!

60A ESC - Link!

3000 mAh 4s Battery - Link!

3x 9g servos - Link!

1x Servo Y harness

Reciever of your choice 

 

 

Print the two templates and then start stenceling the shapes onto foam and cutting them out. 

 

There are three main sections to this build:

 

The wing, made of three peices. 

The fuselage and custom powerpod.

 

The tail, comprising of the horizontal and vertical stabilisers, the servo and push rod, and the booms. 

 

 

The Wing

 

Put the wing together like this.

Note the wing spar and spacer pieces at the bottom. The spar has already been folded to double thickness, seen in the next image. 

Be sure to score the wing fold lines.

 

The servos go into the ends of each wing under the under camber. Glue it so that it sits snuggly up against the foam spar. 

The main wing spar can be glued next to the centre section's foam spar. You can make this from a square wooden dowel, a round dowel, or maybe even aluminium if you want to go that far. For the Standard Edition de Havilland Vampire, the existing foam spar is adequate, but for a Ludicrous Edition, it is vital you include one.

 

You should have the cables come out underneath the centre section so they can be attached to a receiver when the powerpod is slid directly under it. 

Your finished wing. Go ahead and add the pushrods and control horns the way you like to do them. 

 

The Fuselage

 

The fuselage is pretty simple, fold up the sides and make it into a box as on the plans. The special powerpod needs to be assembled. You should add velcro at the end to secure the battery deep into the nose. You may need to add some ballast too later if your plane does not balance at the CG point, which is 2.5cm forward of the wing spar. To hold the powerpod in place, add bbq skewers in two places along the fuselage, but make sure you do not put one so far forward that it gets in the way of the battery. front and rear turtle deck can be added after these steps.

 

The Tail


The tail can be a bit tricky, mostly because a servo goes in the back and a cable has to make its way through the boom to the fuselage. The booms can be filled with a wooden dowel each for rigidity. As you can see in the video, the first crash landing resulted in the bending of these.


 

Notice the servo leed from the left boom going into the fuselage. You can run this up along the groove under the wing as shown.

 

 

The tail servo goes in the designated cut out. It does protrude a bit. Maybe future versions will have a better setup for this.

 

 

Putting It All Together 

 

Slide the wing through the fuselage and glue in place, with the cables all going into the centre where the powerpod is.  

 

 

The booms attach underneath the wing by a simple glue joint. If you want a more substantial joint, maybe reinforce with wood. you will want to hot glue the boom top and bottom surfaces on which will give this more strength. 

 

 

The intake is glued, flush with the front leading edge of the wing, to the bottom of the wing and the side of the fuselage. 

 

 

The cockpit canopy is made of four pieces, the bottom, the former, the windshield and the card rear turtle deck.

 

 

Balancing and Flying


The Vampire may need some additional nose weight to balance correctly. The CG should be roughly on mid section of the wing spar. The front card turtle deck can be removed and more ballast added in the nose section if needed.

 

Finished aircraft

 

 

I hope you enjoy building and flying your new Vampire. Please let me know if you make one in the comments, and send me pictures and videos. It would mean a lot

 

Thank you

James.

 

COMMENTS

frugalflyer on February 10, 2016
Nice model and well presented video.
A strong word of warning - stop launching as you did in the video - javelin power on. This method can slice along the arm and hand. I have a series of scars that prove the point, even though as a long time modeler, I was aware of the dangers. Launch power off and hit throttle after the plane is clear of hand or use a discus type launch.
Make use of that beautiful peak district and double the Mossie as a slope soarer.
Thanks for the free plans I'll 'have a go'.
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Fearless FPV on February 10, 2016
Good point! Has anyone seen Hobbyking's video on TBS Long-Range FPV gear? There they feature a wing that you toss over your head at full power, which is yet another way to launch. Whichever way you chose, be safe!

:)
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JamesWhomsley on February 11, 2016
Sweet, yeah I will make sure to discus launch in future. Fair point. Make sure to send me pictures of your build. :)
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frugalflyer on February 10, 2016
Sorry not a Mossie but a Vamp. Right era wrong plane.
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Fearless FPV on February 10, 2016
Great job! Love this design!
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JamesWhomsley on February 11, 2016
Thanks!

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ABCrc on February 10, 2016
Love these two designs especially the racer. great to see foam broad Vampires!
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JamesWhomsley on February 11, 2016
cheers, yeah the racer is pretty sweet!

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Air-headed Aviator on February 11, 2016
Super cool design! Mega Awesome! I'm trying to build my own 100+ plane myself, but am still writing the plans. I'll definately look to your model for inspiration.
Q: do you think a foam box spar would be able to handel the stress?
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JamesWhomsley on February 11, 2016
Thank you, means a lot. A foam spar worked just fine for me, but it could have been because it was quite thick. Try adding a wooden dowel glue in their somewhere - Simple but it works.
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Flying Penguin RC on February 12, 2016
really cool design, you got some skills
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JamesWhomsley on February 12, 2016
haha cheers man, I try my best :)
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CJGFX on February 15, 2016
FLITETEST TEAM TAKE NOTE...... One for the FT Store I think.... It looks great and it's one of my favorite planes... Great build and artical....
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JamesWhomsley on February 21, 2016
Thanks, means a lot. Would be amazing to have a plane I designed in the FT store

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Sidewayskiwi on July 22, 2018
Hi Mark
The wing slots they don't seem to be on the plans I have infront on me
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Sidewayskiwi on July 22, 2018
Hi Mark
The wing slots they don't seem to be on the plans I have infront on me
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Sidewayskiwi on July 22, 2018
Hi Mark
The wing slots they don't seem to be on the plans I have infront on me
Log In to reply
Sidewayskiwi on July 22, 2018
Hi Mark
The wing slots they don't seem to be on the plans I have infront on me
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Sidewayskiwi on July 22, 2018
Hi Mark
The wing slots they don't seem to be on the plans I have infront on me
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jelle.sarita on April 17, 2016
Thanks for sharing this amazing project. I'm a big fan of the Vampire and also the venom.
Your build inspires me a lot, I've a nice thick symetric aifoiled 60 inch wing laying around, which i'll use as basic.
It's a straight wing, so this will be historically total inaccurate. But for me it's all about a twin boomed jet racer. Again thank you very much for sharing your project. keep on designing. Maybe a Venom later :-)
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Danlee on May 6, 2019
How big do I print the stencils?
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bobwalden@talktalk.net on March 7, 2020
I made a Venom from Scratch based on an A4 sized three-view. I used Bob's Foam Factory Concept wing style, and built up a round-cross-section Fuse with a dozen planks of Depron. Sanded it to shape and covered it with very thin glass-cloth applied with wallpaper paste. It took a few flights to get it sorted, but flies great. The boxy fuse I initially made looked awful, so was scrapped and the round one made.
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Jim-48 on February 9, 2022
HEY!!! Where are the plans for the RC de Havilland Vampire? I went to get a copy and Google tells me they are not there. What happened? Are they still available? I'd really like to build one of these, they look like a lot of fun.
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prayer3290 on March 6, 2023
Hello! the plane looks awesome, could a beginner fly this after flying with a simulator?
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Bvernon54@gmail.com on February 6, 2024
Where are the plans, file not found when selecting the supplied links
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De Havilland Vampire - FREE PLANS!