Hawk XAB-1 Atomic Bomber: a classic fantasy model brought to life as an R/C RG

Never bring one to force myself to finish all projects in work before starting a new one, I have cranked up a new a Depron RC RG project

Back around the age of 10-12, I built the classic Hawk XAB-1 Atomic Powered Bomber kit. I always thought this thing was uber-cool. It does have a few issues that are not optimal for a a flying model, but in the back of my mind, I always wanted to build some type of RC version

Frank's recent bursts of creativity with the various versions of the Interceptor have inspired me to go ahead and do the XAB-1 as a Depron RG for the E6.

While my building time is extremely limited for the next few weeks, I have made good progress on the wings, the wingtip engine pods and the canard and will post pictures shortly.

I am still debating whether to do the fuse full body with a rolled Depron tube, or a profile. I have a supply of 1mm and 2mm Depron and may try rolling one with a layer of 1mm and a layer of 2mm to about 2.25" OD and see how how it works out. If I go that route, I will likely carve the nose cone from beaded polystyrene, finished with tissue and water based polyurethane.

May just consider this an aerodynamic prototype and get it in the air quickly with a profile fuse and see how it flies.

Vertical tail has been enlarged and have made a few other tweaks to make sure it will be decent flyable

Yes, it will fly with the parasite fighters installed. Doubt I will mess with making them releasable as little free flight gliders, but you never know....

My construction sketches are being done from pictures of the models from the classic kit and the larger kit of the same aircraft that was done a few years ago by Fantastic Plastic, plus some use of a rather crude paper model of the aircraft that I found on line.

Here is a picture of the old kit and a link to pictures of the built model.

https://www.fantastic-plastic.com/XAB-1 BETA-1 PAGE.htm

Tom, that wing is pretty large, the box art didn't reflect that as much as the actual photos, should be a good flyer, I would think that using bt-80 and a pnc might be a good easy option for this for a non profile, at the cost of an ounce or so over depron, I've never tried doing rolled depron that small, but I look forward to your technique if you get it to work.

The nord wallace sst and the american atomic bomber are also neat...the atomic bomber is pretty straight forward...

https://www.fantastic-plastic.com/1950s_concept_air.htm

Will be fun to watch.

burkefj said:

Tom, that wing is pretty large, the box art didn't reflect that as much as the actual photos, should be a good flyer, I would think that using bt-80 and a pnc might be a good easy option for this for a non profile, at the cost of an ounce or so over depron, I've never tried doing rolled depron that small, but I look forward to your technique if you get it to work.

The nord wallace sst and the american atomic bomber are also neat...the atomic bomber is pretty straight forward...

https://www.fantastic-plastic.com/1950s_concept_air.htm

Will be fun to watch.

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That Fantastic Plastic web site is full of interesting ideas... hopefully you will build some of them as well.

There are more there that I want to try one if these days!

Made a nice score this week. DARS ended up with a huge stash of rocket stuff after a member passed away in 2012. I recently found out that there were some RMS-RC stuff in the well stored stash. I got a 24mm RC case and a 32mm RC case 2 packs of E6 reloads, 2 packs of E12RCJ blackjack reloads, plus 2-packs of each of the following for the 32 case: F23, F13 and F16 RCJ blackjacks, all for 100 bucks. All the reloads look good, with minimal salting on the WL grains. The money goes to the club and helps club operations, so it is all good.

I need to build something to use up the 32mm loads I have, as I have another 32mm case and a dozen or so Fs and Gs for it I have never used.

Back to the EAB-1. I have been wanting to try rolling tubes out of the very thin Depron, do will likely go that route if I do a tube based model. I know the a BT80 and PNC would work, though and I gave to admit I might end up doing that.

Was able to hit the building board a little last night. Decided to go ahead with a profile version for now, to prove the design and to speed things up for now. Working seven days a week for the next two weeks, so will roll Depron tubes later...

Fuse and canard assembled. Still mulling over the best approach to represent the jet engines on the fuse near the wing joint. Elevons and canard are hinged.

Need to draw and cut the paper cone transitions for the wing mounted atomic engines.

Pictures coming soon.

Ought to be ready to test fly at the DARS launch on 2/20 or the DARS HP launch a week later, even with my crazyy work schedule.

After a tough spell of work and other obligations, I have some building and flying time again!

I made a little progress on the XAB-1 a few weeks back, but had to park it for a while.

After last nights session, it is taking shape nicely, per the pictures attached. I did make the vertical tail much larger than scale, to help with boost stability in the yaw axis.:no:

The white BT50 tubes will be used with some card stock cones for the tip mounted "atomic" engines and with different cones for the fuse mounted turbojets.

Control will be elevons and a canard pitch flap, more for glide trim than anything else. However, will have the option to turn it on for additional pitch authority if needed. This worked out very nicely on my XB-70.

I have vinyl markings cut and ready to apply.

Still need to make the parasite flighters in Depron, add the parasite mounts, add the elevon servos, add the canard linkage, build up and add the atomic and turbojet engine pods. Then some balancing and some decoration and it will be ready to go.

CG appears to be quite close as is, based on taking a few steps across the yard and releasing it for a moment and then catching it before it glides more than a couple of feet.

Due to motor exhaust, I will likely only be able to boost with one of the vertical tail mounted parasite fighters installed. (The top one) might be above to mount both parasites for electric pusher power, if I keep the prop small.

I think I have worked out a simple and lightweight method of releasing the free flight parasite flighter while gliding. That will be fun!

Off this week and headed to an RC event in Little Rock tomorrow. (Going to be rainy through the weekend, but I predict we will get some flying in here and there.) Planning on doing the maiden launch of this guy.

Finished up the XAB-1 Atomic Bomber today, except for some temporary launch lugs and additional decoration. Going to add the lugs and launch it before adfing more decoration. Early test glides look promising.

The first picture is of a reproduction version of the original plastic kit and the second is the almost ready to launch profile Depron XAB-1

I skipped the inboard jet turbine nacelles, at least for now. (This fantasy Atomic Bomber design had inboard jet turbines on the fuse under the wing and the dangerous atomic powered turbines were mounted on the wingtips.)

The parasite fighter is tack glued in place for now. Still planning on making it releasable in flight at some point. Just doing one parasite for now, as the second one is a little close to the rocket exhaust (And the prop when flown as an electric pusher.) The little parasite flight glides very nicely.

The canard is set up as a three position flap and is also mixable to the elevator as an additional pitch input as desired. Having a canard pitch surface on the XB-70 worked very nicely for glide trim.

Will give a launch report later this week.

Looks great Tom, what's your rtf weight for this one?

Frank

Goodness....I'd forgotten all about that Hawk kit....and I think I built one in my plastic model phase (mid-to-late 1960s). I vaguely remember those parasite fighters not staying on very well if the model was handled at all.

Neat project!!

burkefj said:

Looks great Tom, what's your rtf weight for this one?

Frank

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Thanks for the kind comments, guys.

I had not weighed it yet, but with the empty RMS-RC case and a bit of ballast, it is currently at 6.9 oz. Still need to settle on the final glide CG and then ballast for the fully loaded motor. Will update the take off weight later this week.

Looks great Tom! Looking forward to the flight reports.