Simviation Forums

Here's the last of this batch. Hoooray I hear you shout. Never mind, nobody forced you to look at 'em.

Did someone mention electric flight? Back in the deepest darkest days of the period now known as the '80s your old friend Hagar & his mates were experimenting with this novel form of propulsion. This is one of those early models, basically a slope soarer with an electric motor in it. I fitted the longer soaring wings on it to compensate for the extra weight of the battery pack. It was a tad heavy. The prototype Electro Soarbeau.


I happened to remark to my old mate Pete that if you turned the fuselage upside down it resembled a WWII fighter. Before you could say Nora Batty here's what he came up with. A cartoon-scale electric powered P-51D. It performed very well, even with the standard wing.



His next project was twin-engined, a cartoon-scale Bf 110. That also flew well but I don't have any decent shots of it. It was fitted with bombs filled with flour which looked quite impressive when dropped. He then decided to go the whole hog & try 4 motors. This is what he came up with. A beautful semi-scale C-130.
Careful pre-flight on the runway at Shoreham after the airport closed. This is the first test flight. We needed plenty of room to make sure it got off the ground.


Hooray, she flies & well too. Now doesn't that look a treat.


The very first 4-motored electric powered model aircraft to fly in the UK. I've lost count of the number of competitions he won with it.

Amazing shots! :-)

Great shots Doug:)

GREAT COLLECTION of shots Doug!
 ;D
Dave

Cool-o, Daddyo... love that stretched 'Stang!  :D And of course yopu can't go wrong with a Herc.
Reminds me that it's been about a zillion years since I went to the old Floyd Bennett Field to watch the R/C freaks fly there... last time there were quite a few ducted-fan models of jets and some impressive giant-scale birds. Best thing about that place is watching the heavies clawing their way up from JFK just to the northeast. One time a 747 "sneaked up" on me there... had my back turned and the wind in my face, plus it was coming straight at me, so I didn't notice it until I turned around and- woah!! Right in my face, and seeming much lower than it really was...

I have to say that Herc is impressive

Wow, I love the Herc!!

Glad you like 'em. I forgot to mention the Herc had a functional cargo door & dropped paratroops. We had to keep our eyes peeled when he dropped them or it would have turned out expensive. I don't think the airport authorities would have been too impressed if we'd left litter on the field so he didn't do it too often. It also had fully retracting gear which he designed himself.

Pete's piece de resistance was an electric powered Avro Vulcan. It never flew as he had problems with the ducted fans which he made himself. On the most successful attempt a leaf got sucked into the intake & shattered the fans during the take-off run. Shame that as I'm sure it would have flown nicely. Commercial fans would have cost far too much & would not be in the true spirit of a modeller like Pete. He gave up electrics (& radio) soon after that & now happily flies his vintage free-flighters & indoor models. I hope to see him again at the indoor meeting this Sunday to catch up on his latest projects.

Amazing collection of shots Hagar! Looks like you were really into it! I must agree that the Hercules looks fantastic, pretty amazing what some hands and a sturdy mind can do!