Suppose the scale rules were to be amended to remove the requirement that man-carrying aircraft are the only allowed subjects for modeling. There are some interesting RPV/Drone aircraft out there now that would make good scale models. Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk come to mind.

Rules could be something like this:

Full scale subject aircraft to have a minimum of 20 ft wing span and model scale to be a maximum of 2:1, ie, half size of the original would be the largest scale model. The intent is to exclude the small drones that are model airplanes to start with.

Prototypes must be actual flying aircraft (same as existing rules)

Weights, etc., to conform to existing rules.

Aircraft must takeoff and land on its own landing gear, no dollies, rail or hand launched allowed.

Drone models allowed in all classes.

Interestingly, there have been many full scale man-carrying aircraft operated as drones. I personally am aware of B-17s (operated at the Bikini Atoll nuclear bomb tests), Hellcats, and most of the modern fighter jets. Kinda of a grey area here, since most all of these retained the cockpit and manual flight controls, just had no pilot when operating. Some used human pilots when being ferried, then R/C for missions.

Regards,

John W

A controlline scale model of a RC aircraft ----  WOW!     All seriousness aside not a bad idea. It should be a class all it's own.

 

Having a requirement for landing and takeoff on scale gear eliminates all the missiles (I think). I had thought about cruise missiles and I've seen a Tomahawk close up, but they launch from rails and are 9 ft. span. Predator variants run from 48 ft to 66 ft span (about the size of a Cessna 150) and Global Hawk is 120 ft span.

I agree, the wording would need to be sorted out, but would probably be easier than the BOM rule and stunt appearance rules. I've seen one R/C park flyer of a Predator -- R/C of an R/C! Incidentally Predators and UAVs of that ilk are not really "flown" as such, but have autonomous flight controls, and are just told where to go by the operator.

Mostly I posted this to spark the discussion and a proposal in a couple of years might be just right.  UAVs are becoming widespread in their use, and are operated by several Federal agencies besides the armed forces, so offer some opportunity to expand the model building range, and perhaps increase the number of people interested in scale.

Personally, I like WWI through WWII.

John W

They could make a drone the size of a 747 and it would still be just a big drone.

Would this proposal allow small drones to be "modeled" at 1:1 scale?

You could do this four or five times normal size: