Very Large electric plane

[orca8]

Does anyone know about an R/C plane so large that a person could fit inside. just wondering because with planes like the 12' telemaster...

Has anyone built something like a 30' plane large enough to fit a person. Just wondering.

[Carl Petersen]

Here you go...

[Keith43221]

There is an 50' R/C plane made out of foam. Its called Big Floyd, you can find it in a search. It hasn't flown more than a hop due to the creators lack of time, and the size of motor it requires.

[portablevcb]

There have been several full size planes powered by electrics. Their problem is limited range due to battery weight.

No "R/C" plane is safe enough to carry a person. Just plain stupid.

There are many planes, certified types, that can carry people and be controlled by other than the flight controls. Heck, most flying is done by "george" the autopilot, being guided by GPS. UAV's have proven that computers and GPS can fly planes without anyone providing outside input. And, yes, there have been remote controlled planes with human passengers.

charlie

[LBJ]

Well, stupid idea or not, I have thought about that very idea! I think it would be cool to control your flight with a TX box in your lap. Essentially and oversimplified, that's the way most modern A/C are controlled. Think of a TX with a patch cord directly to the RX, maybe. But, it's fly by wire.

[portablevcb]

Yep, it is. But, a very unreliable fly by wire compared to direct controls, either wired or cabled or "fly by wire" as used in the aircraft industry. Most of those 'fly by wire' systems have multiple redundancies built in and are tested in some extreme conditions before allowing a human occupant. And, they still fail every now and then. The F-16 went through some growing pains before it was accepted.

Before you embark on this please make the designer of the airplane aware of what you are about to do so he can go to court before something bad happens. If you do the design yourself, you probably need to keep it a deep dark secret or the radio mfg will probably stop you. They aren't worried about you as much as your surviving relatives who will sue everyone in sight for allowing you to do such a thing.

Sorry, I'll stop the rant here. Just don't want to see the hobby get handicapped from an incident.

charlie

[Jeffery]

There are commercially available electric motor gliders

http://www.lange-flugzeugbau.com/htm/english/products/antares_20e/antares_20E.html

[MCarlton]

I think it would be cool to control your flight with a TX box in your lap. Essentially and oversimplified, that's the way most modern A/C are controlled. Think of a TX with a patch cord directly to the RX, maybe. But, it's fly by wire.

You'd never be able to convince the FAA, CAA or whoever that your "hobby standard" tx was reliable enough to be used. There would be no back up system either, so if your Tx glitched, you'd be stuffed.

Remember, full sized aircraft are not like scaled up models, the loadings, stresses and construction and control systems are a lot different and importantly, more stringently controlled.

Full size fly by wire systems are a little different to a Tx, however good a tx is, the signals are generated by small potentiometers (as I understand it) of which there is only one per channel. The fly by wire system of the F-16 for example, is not, as the stick does not move at all and worked by pressure sensing, or did not in its first carnation, IIRC they built in some non-functional flex as pilots were uncomfortable with a static stick.

[JWilliams2]

I bet if you didn't care much about your life and were fairly light you could make one really cheaply and probably not even die if you only flew it once.

[Ed Couch]

MCarlton

I must take you to task on the F-16 stick in that it does move but at much less movement than a standard center control stick. The first couple of YF-16 models built did have a pressure sensitive stick but this proved totally unacceptable to the pilot so for the production models the stick moves in all directions, just enough to give the pilot a "feel" of the controls not unlike our sticks on a transmitter. The transducers (movement sensors) are in the base of the stick not in the stick itself. The same is true for the F-22 and F-35.