A-7 Corsair II RC RG

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burkefj

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Working on my final SPEV for my 3" PSII tubing, always wanted to do a sluf or A-7 Corsair II. Did some quick envelope drawings, calculations and looks like a 20 to 21" wingspan won't look too large, fully movable stabilizers for control. Will give me a wing area similar to my Mig 19, small but may glide "ok"....

I glued in a 1" long piece of 2" PSII tubing into the top front of the tube and laminated a nose out of depron that can slide into the PSII tubing for the "nose" of the A-7, the bottom of the 3" tube will then simulate the intake...won't be very scale but simple to do. I need to be able to remove the nose so I can put the battery in for flying.

Here is an openrocket hack job picture to show the guts and parts, I can't offset the wing to the top and I can't offset the nose to the inner tube but you get the idea of approx proportions...

corsairII.jpg
 
Mounted the rail buttons and created the wing/tail templates, and covered the nose with vinyl. Sort of looks like I was hoping. I added some black vinyl trim to the rear to create a shadow and make the tail look more curved up like the real thing without having to cut the body tube.

Frank

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Finished her up this evening, ready to maiden. Went together really easily, the servos are partially recessed into the body tube under the wing, I moved the wing back an inch from scale to help with CG placement, and the wing and horiz tail are slightly oversized. Did some indoor glide tests and it only took 3/8 oz to balance so came out at 9.75 oz which is an ounce lighter than my Mig 19 at about the same wing area, hopefully it is stable and I can leave it as is.

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Nice. Used to go to vulture's row and watch them during flight ops...so many years ago.
 
Success! Flew four flights today, about 7-8mph gusts, more than I would have liked, model tended to pitch into the wind just off the rail but a gentle pull up and it was a hands off boost, glide and boost trims were perfect as originally set. Glide was better than expected and the nice headwind made nice gentle flare landings possible. Now to paint the upper half gray and talk to stickershock about some markings. I've covered the nose cone in white now to match this scheme.

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Thanks! Here she is after the maiden to prove it's still in one piece:) With the re-covered nose in white.

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Painted the top half dark aircraft gray and then put some panel lines, and added the white control surface accents and canopy vinyl. Just working out the details with Mark at stickershock for the lettering, snake, etc. Proportions aren't too far off, but it's hard to get a photo angle where it doesn't look too stuby and cartoonish....I mean it is a sluf, what can you expect...
 
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Added some panel lines to the fuse and some more wing details, also found a nice picture of the sidewinders in formation.

WP_20170901_11_28_20_Pro.jpgUSN Vought A-7 Corsair VA-86 USS Nimitz 1976 5x7 Aircraft ___.jpg
 
Here is some flight video from today, the open front tube and the soft matting runway combined to make the landings look more bouncy...It's a carrier plane, I'm not supposed to flare right?

[video=youtube;B8sSE5dfya4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8sSE5dfya4[/video]
 
I'm searching for Crayon banks, and this pops up in Google's search? How did I miss this thread? Looks Great Frank!!!
 
Another re-discovered thread! I always like the look of that jet, built a plastic model of it when I was a kid. Nice job! Combining RC and rockets is really interesting. If I could learn my left from my right, that is!
 
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