Hello to all
I apologize for my bad English but I hope you understand the same.
Some time ago I started to build a model using the composite wing and the Horizontal Stabilizer of Igor Burger's MAX-BEE.
I obviously asked Igor a copy of the plan of his model for the construction, but at this point I was presented with a small problem:
I wanted to use an I.C. engine in place of the Igor electric motor, but in the design there are at least two features that seem to be in contrast with this choice.
1) The nose of the MAX-BEE is very long and Igor uses the possibility of moving the batteries to get a correct trim
2) To counter-balance the gyroscopic effect that throws the nose up with right-handed propellers, the thrust line is very high, compared to the wing.
With the use of an I.C. engine all this would have caused the following problems:
1) The long nose would have required an extra ballast to correctly position the C.G.
The powertrain so forward would have led to an increase in the moment of inertia of about 20-25% compared to a conventional positioning, not counting the weight increase and the further increase in the moment of inertia due to the unavoidable ballast needed in tail.
2) In traditional stunt models with I.C. engine in inverted position (cylinder below) the C.G. is placed about 1" below the thrust line so, to position the wing according to the original drawings, I should have move the loadouts higher than about 0.6".
This operation, however, was impossible if I did not want to dissect the wing that had the loadouts already installed, alternatively I could ballast the landing gear to lower the C.G.
At this point I could not resist the temptation to keep the masses as close as possible to C.G. so I lowered the thrust line and shortened the nose, now I was no longer talking about the MAX-BEE but of a model that used its wing and its stabilizer.
Now I have a model that (at least for numbers) looks more like Igor's old Max and has lost the BEE.
Therefore, to complete the work, I decided to redesign the fuselage silhouette and inspire myself to the Spectre by Yves Fernandez.
The result is visible in the attached picture.
What are your ideas and how would you have faced the problem?
Your comments will be appreciated, Thank you.
Massimo