Inspired by Larry's ET-2, but made to fly more like a Sig Skyray or other of the innumerable little planes of my youth. It's already been crash tested! My wife tried it, and ripped the bellcrank mount off -- the one in the picture is the newer, stronger one. Aside from that, the thing took no other damage.
It's made from less than $1 worth of dollar-store foam. It's a 24 inch wingspan electric with a 100 watt motor, with an RC car radio from Hobby King for speed control -- the elevator is regular control line. It'd work great with a KR governor-timer. The most expensive single item on the airframe is the bellcrank. Motor, battery, radio and whatnot bring the cost up to $65 or so, but most of that should survive crashes and work on the next plane.
It took me four hours to build this thing, while designing it in my head. Construction is almost entirely foam board and hot glue, with just a few bits of lite-ply around the motor and bellcrank. A design from plans should take much less time -- it'd be a good design to bring to a scout group along with a pile of foam board and one set of electronics: each kid could build his airframe, have it flight tested, fly it, and take it home sans electrics (and then start lobbying mom & dad for parts!!).
Significant inspiration came from Larry's ET-2, and from Flight Test's Bloody Wonder:
http://flitetest.com/articles/FT_Bloody_Wonder_Scratch_Build. You could probably just build a Bloody Wonder instead, with a bellcrank replacing the radio, but I like the looks of my version better.
I'm still playing with props and elevator throw; I'll report more if it works and if there's interest.
Topic: New Design, ET-??? (Read 3193 times)