It's been a little quiet around here lately, so I am pleased to introduce my newest, biggest, scariest project !!!

110" w.s. A-10 Warthog. 1/6th scale. This is a kit sold by Dean Lassek and with plans made by Josh Harel. The kit has been around for a while, mostly seeing action in the late 90's first as a twin glow ducted fan and then as a twin turbine, both built by Dean Lassek. After searching for my next project, being an avid A-10 fan ( actually I'm obsessed ) I came across some info on this kit. After finding Dean on RCU late last year, I placed an order with him for the basic kit, and waited patiently for it to be delivered. The fiberglass parts arrived today, and the foam wing and tail cores, canopy and plans are on the way.

At this point my plans for powering this beast are two Byron Fan units converted to electric power, using Hacker outrunners, either on 10s or 11s (Thanks to Bob Ruff for making the effort to discover the Byron/Hacker conversion)

Robart makes a set of retracts for this kit, which were special ordered about 5 months ago and arrived not too long ago.

Also, I would like to thank the following people for helping make this dream possible:


Dean Lassek ( producer of the kit)

Josh Harel ( designer of the plans)

Bob Ruff ( discoverer of the Byron/Hacker electric conversion)

Tomas at VQwarbirds.com for getting me the Robart Retracts

Stig Anderson ( Denmark) for this excellent build thread (still building!) over at
RCU: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3147152/tm.htm

Junkjet ( Freddy ) For making the second run of Byron
adapters and the super neat spinners !

Sean Sweeney for suggesting the use of Byron fans

My Wife (for putting up with ANOTHER plane in the house)


Robert at EJF.com (sells the Byron conversion parts, and is a great person to
deal with in general )

If I forgot anyone, please PM me !!

...And now for some pictures

That thing is BIG!!
I`ll follow this tread, subscribed.

What ya got stuffed in that duct, looks like packing fur

Wow! good luck on this project!

Bob

That thing is as big as a Mibo turbine A-10. Awesome!!!!!

I'd look into this fan maybe.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=872711

The glow version was reported to weigh about 50+ pounds. This included 9-10 lbs of lead in the nose to balance. With the electric setup we can put the "fuel" (lipo's) in the nose to eliminate this dead weight. I am making every attempt to keep this one as light as possible. The fiberglass parts were made using a lighter layup for electric power. Everything will be weighed before assembly to see where I can save weight.. Just a few ideas-

- Light ply instead of regular ply where possible

- Dubro lightweight wheels instead of heavier aluminum "jet" wheels

- No brakes

- K.I.S.S. principle... One large air tank for retracts, and basic tubing only, Single Spektrum 9100 RX with 2 batteries, no powerboxes, etc etc



POWER SYSTEM:

Static testing on the Byron fans, using older TP Pro-lite 10S packs showed approx 10.5 lbs of thrust per unit. This is static with no thrust tube installed.

Expected total thrust approx 22 lbs using newer 30c Lipos and thrust tubes.

The byron fans were chosen because of their larger diameter.. meaning more thrust at low RPM's. The A-10 is not a "fast" plane, and wasn;t designed to break the speed barrier My reasoning is I want to put as many Watts into thrust as I can, with "speed" being 2nd... That is the best bet to make this project a success. Also the low cost of 2 converted Byron Fans is one third or less the price of similar sized systems. I do have a budget of sorts.

Byron fan unit : $80

EJF Adapters $46

HobbyCity
Sentilon 100 HV ESC $96

Hacker Motor $140 (from Miniature Aircraft)

-----

$ 362

x2 = $724





Hoping to achieve an AUW of 35 lbs.

Originally Posted by ScaleBrad

The glow version was reported to weigh about 50+ pounds. This included 9-10 lbs of lead in the nose to balance. With the electric setup we can put the "fuel" (lipo's) in the nose to eliminate this dead weight. I am making every attempt to keep this one as light as possible. The fiberglass parts were made using a lighter layup for electric power. Everything will be weighed before assembly to see where I can save weight.. Just a few ideas-

- Light ply instead of regular ply where possible

- Dubro lightweight wheels instead of heavier aluminum "jet" wheels

- No brakes

- K.I.S.S. principle... One large air tank for retracts, and basic tubing only, Single Spektrum 9100 RX with 2 batteries, no powerboxes, etc etc

Static testing on the Byron fans, using older TP Pro-lite 10S packs showed approx 10.5 lbs of thrust per unit. This is static with no thrust tube installed.

Expected total thrust approx 22 lbs using newer 30c Lipos and thrust tubes.

Hoping to achieve an AUW of 35 lbs.

Nice birdy!

I bet that cart looks sweet cruising across the street

Chris

holy crap thats big! definitely watching this one!

holy gigantic A-10 batman! brad, that thing is rediculus! :O cant wait to see that baby in the air! man...talk about some serious sanding when it comes time for paint! :O

Yes, it is ridiculous !! My neighbor came over to see it and we all just started laughing.

All i can say is.................

SWEEEEET

Travis

Last pic of the night...

Robart Retracts, with DX-7 shown for size comparison

Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob

Dang... that is freaken massive!
How detailed are you going to make it?