I have developed a new plane. I have successfully flown this in my house by making a circuit from my family room, around my kitchen and back into my family room. I don't even think this could be done with an Ember.

We hope to have kits available to ship out in 2 to 3 weeks. Sold by SlowBipe Air.

Name: Micro SlowBipe
Type: Biplane
Wingspan: 10"
Length: 13"
Weight rtf: 22g

The design is simple to build and very durable. I crashed a few dozen time leaning to fly the circuit in my kitchen, and the hardwood floors and the refrigerator are very hard. After all the the plane is still undamaged.

It easily takes the gear out of almost any parkzone airplane. On the plane in this video I used a 3g brushless motor from HobbyKing, but I believe it would fly with even more power using the standard motor out of the Sukhoi. Only requires rudder and elevator, yet is very controllable and aerobatic.

Here are some pictures of it sitting on the elevon from the GiantBipe I am working on. There is also a video I shot today in my kitchen having lots of fun.

Remember to pick higher resolution to view the YouTube video.

Enjoy!

SlowBipe

New Micro SlowBipe flying in the kitchen: by SlowBipe Air (2 min 25 sec)

Awesome how much for 1 kit?

Originally Posted by fOaMmaSh87

Awesome how much for 1 kit?

I haven't determined price yet but it should be reasonable compared to other kits out there. $25 to $30 is probably where we are at.

The kit will consist of foam, wood, carbon, rods, hinge and control horns. There will be more details to come soon.

Thanks, SlowBipe

i assume using the stock motor?

Originally Posted by nemoskull

i assume using the stock motor?

I suppose the motor you use would be up to you. This version is flying on a 3g 4000kv brushless motor from HobbyKing.com. It also uses a 1g brushless single cell ESC from there. The 1g Esc has power, ground and signal which plugs into the same port as the brushed motor on the AR6400 brick from many of the existing horizon hobby rtf micro airplanes. When using this method you need to reprogram the AR6400 for brushless operation.

I have a motor/gearbox from a Horizon Sukhoi. I am also designing the firewall/motor mount to accomodate this brushed motor as well as a brushless firewall mount. It will plug directly into the AR6400 without separate ESC. My tests on this motor show that it will have even more power/thrust than the 3g brushless. I expect a slight gain in weight as the Sukhoi motor/gearbox weighs about 5g. Brushless package with Esc is about 4g.

The only other difference with the brushed motor is that it probably will take a longer time to make throttle changes with the mass of the gearbox. Living room flight requires very good power control.

Hope this answers your question.

Thanks, SlowBipe

Here is an outdoor video of the new Micro SlowBipe in flight in some very gusty winds. Though this doesn't demonstrate the smoothest flight it is an ultra micro flying in 5 to 8 mph wind gusts. The plane has a 1.7 oz per square foot wing loading and weighs 22g.

Enjoy the video:

SlowBipe

Micro SlowBipe Flying In Stiff Wind (4 min 51 sec)

You should really try some lighter 6 & 7mm gearboxes which will also let you drop your battery size to the 70 to 90mah range. A Sukhoi motor in a 10'' plane is a lot more weight and power than needed.(and I love lots of power) The down-side is your not going to be flying in that kind of wind, but indoors you'll probably be amazed. The AP03s are great I have a few of them but they amp hogs compared to the gearboxes. Wish you the best of luck because it is a cool little plane and we need as many as we can get.
TODD

The J-3 Cub motor/gearbox/prop would give it a near 1:1 thrust to weight for about 4.5g of weight total.

Originally Posted by I R Irv

You should really try some lighter 6 & 7mm gearboxes which will also let you drop your battery size to the 70 to 90mah range. A Sukhoi motor in a 10'' plane is a lot more weight and power than needed.(and I love lots of power) The down-side is your not going to be flying in that kind of wind, but indoors you'll probably be amazed. The AP03s are great I have a few of them but they amp hogs compared to the gearboxes. Wish you the best of luck because it is a cool little plane and we need as many as we can get.
TODD

Todd,

Thank you for the suggestions. I am not super familiar with the specific motors that are used in each HorizonHobbies micro airplane. It does look like the power output from the Sukhoi is rather high for this design, but I will probably install and test anyway.

I know the plane will fly well with 1 to 1 power to thrust ration, but it is not near as much fun as when you have more power.

The ideas behind this design is great slow flying simplicity. It needs to be easy to install gear, have great durability and be very fun to fly. All of my SlowBipe designs have proven that this design platform is well suited for indoor flight.

I would love it someone had the time and was willing to post on this thread the motor/gearbox combinations that come with the various HobbyZone micro aircraft. Pictures would even be great. I would like my plane to be capable of flying after the installation of any of these packages. I would like to gain more knowledge about the methods of attaching each of the respective gearboxes.

Thanks, SlowBipe

This is the 7mm gearbox you should try. It's not cheap but in my opinion it's the best gearbox on the market. 1.5mm hardened shaft with ball bearings and bullet proof. It's hard to see but there is a carbon fiber rod coming out of the gearbox glued to the side of the plane. I ran this combo with Parkzone's cheap 70 cell and the Full River 90(before Hyperions came out) cells without any problems. I think I even got 5 or 6 min flight out of the 70cells. You get 29 grams thrust at .9 amps http://www.bsdmicrorc.com/index.php?productID=625
TODD

Originally Posted by I R Irv

This is the 7mm gearbox you should try. It's not cheap but in my opinion it's the best gearbox on the market. 1.5mm hardened shaft with ball bearings and bullet proof. It's hard to see but there is a carbon fiber rod coming out of the gearbox glued to the side of the plane. I ran this combo with Parkzone's cheap 70 cell and the Full River 90(before Hyperions came out) cells without any problems. I think I even got 5 or 6 min flight out of the 70cells. You get 29 grams thrust at .9 amps http://www.bsdmicrorc.com/index.php?productID=625
TODD

Awesome post! Thanks for the link. I have tried a basic 6mm gear drive from hk, but the shaft is so soft and the run out so great its hardly worth the trouble. I am happy with my 3g brushless performance, bit it would be nice not to deal with all that wiring.

There are no posted specs on this motor. Do you know the approximate weight and the method of attachment? Does it have a hole to mount to the end of a rod like the ember?

Thanks, SlowBipe

Originally Posted by SlowBipe

Awesome post! Thanks for the link. I have tried a basic 6mm gear drive from hk, but the shaft is so soft and the run out so great its hardly worth the trouble. I am happy with my 3g brushless performance, bit it would be nice not to deal with all that wiring.

There are no posted specs on this motor. Do you know the approximate weight and the method of attachment? Does it have a hole to mount to the end of a rod like the ember?

Thanks, SlowBipe

Sorry my A.D.D. kicked in, heres some info and a couple pics.The wieght as you see it in the pic is 4.16grams and there are two 1mm mounting holes for CF rods.
TODD

I would love to have one of these for the indoor flying our club is doing right now.
Can I preorder a couple of the kits to try?
I already have the HK 4000kv AP03 motor setup to try on it.
.

Originally Posted by I R Irv

Sorry my A.D.D. kicked in, heres some info and a couple pics.The wieght as you see it in the pic is 4.16grams and there are two 1mm mounting holes for CF rods.
TODD

Todd,

Thank you for the great pics. I will need to order one of these power plants to try out. Looks like a perfect fit for the 22g 9.5" Micro SlowBipe.

I was hoping that this plane might fill a space using up gear from some of the existing ParkZone planes. The Sukhoi xp motor and gearbox that I have is very impressive. The power output and efficiency are great. The bearings and shaft hardness appear to be durable enough for what I am trying to do as well.

I went a different route this weekend and built the plane up as a 11.5 inch span StuntBipe. This new design utilized purposeful full flying elevons like my current 24" StuntBipe. It also has a full flying large rudder. The new size should be able to carry the Sukhoi/P51 motor/gearbox with ease. Having a targeted power plant makes it much easier to solve the firewall/motor mount issues that need to be addressed with a production design. The new tail design should turn this into a very fun aerobatic indoor flying while staying with the Slow design characteristics of the original design. Rolls on the StuntBipe are very fast. Weight of the airframe before electronics for this new build came to 18g vs 11g for the 9.5" span model.

I haven't gotten this one flying yet as one of the servo gears on my AR6400 brick are damaged.

Thanks, SlowBipe

Originally Posted by david.merc

I would love to have one of these for the indoor flying our club is doing right now.
Can I preorder a couple of the kits to try?
I already have the HK 4000kv AP03 motor setup to try on it.
dmerc00@gmail.com
.

I don't know how long it will take to get a production kit available. Send me an email at sales@slowBipe.com if you want to discuss availability.

Thanks, SlowBipe