Seems there is more info on the Freewing then the LX here but I figured I would pose the question.

I see the pro's and con's of both designs but head to head how do they match up?

I like the landing gear look on the LX and the nozzel on the Freewing. I will be flying off a grass RC field which is well maintained and takeoffs and landings are a must. I have seen video on both doing it but how well do the hold up over time.

Thanks for any help,

Mike

Go with Freewing.
LX is beautiful model, but doesn't fly!
I have them both.
Takis

Takiss,

What problems did you have with the LX?

It flies slowly, even with the same motor (Cyclone) I have to Freewing that flies great.
LX F-22, with the same setup flies excellent.
Takis

My comment is that niether one of them fly like an F-35 should fly, like a jet.
Too many gimmics, too many servos, too big for a 70. Too bad they didn't get it right.

My 2 cents:

A light weight foamy is not designed to fly like the real F-35. Jet Legend makes a composite F-35 suitable for a P-160 turbine and that one sorta flies like one but still doesn't come close but you are right, neither one flies like the real deal. A kid off the street can open the box up and fly one himself though, at least on the Freewing F-35, it's dead easy to fly and is sorta fun too.

As far as foamies go:

The Freewing F-35 (FW) has internal ducting. The LX does not, it struggles to make efficient thrust due to this.

The FW F-35 is basically pull out of the box and tinker with a little and fly. Easy to mod if desired. There are hundreds of flying Freewing F-35's. I've only seen about three videos and fewer in depth flight reports on the LX

The FW F-35 is smaller than the LX by a little, uses 4s, and the fan is garbage but can easily be substituted for a Eflite fan if you want (many have not needed to but I did). The LX uses 5s, is a little bigger, has more scale details.

Both models are made with fine cell, EPS, easily dented beer cooler type foam - however they are both painted well and look nice. The LX looks a bit better but not many pictures of it so I can't say for sure.

The FW is very light on the wing. You can take out the battery bay and upgrade to bigger packs easily with some mods and it still flies light on the wing. Thing is, I would not recommend more than a 2650 or so 4s pack unless you know what you are doing and know what to look for in upkeep as you start to reach the landing gear gear and airframe structure strength limit with too big a pack.

Both FW and LX designs feature main gear that is too far back to allow an easy rotation - the speed has to be high and you have to yank the model off the ground. I replaced the "dodgy" nose gear on my FW with a Changsun V2 electric non servo type retract and made the nose strut a little longer so it sits with positive ground incidence. No more issues with unrealistic runway death climbs just to take off - I am flying off the runway with grace now, but it has to be landed slowly with the nose high (as it should be anyway) to avoid a porpoise landing.

Both LX and FW models have issues with landing gear durability but they can be fixed / modded / changed out. With my FW F-35 I only had issue with the nose gear and it's changed out now.

If you are a decent builder / modifier and decent flyer I'd almost suggest trying the LX out, and fix it to your tastes. It seems like it has a lot of potential. But it is not ready to fly IMHO like a LX F-35 is. It's got issues that need addressing before the LX is ready to fly well / efficiently (like ducting for one). The FW F-35 has a million owner build/mod reports, opinions, tricks and flight reports here on RCG. The LX has three or four incomplete tales of what it's like to own one. (unless there is a big increase in ownership lately I haven;t been checking for the last year) But I really cant say that the LX F-35 seems like it has anything ridiculously wrong with it. It just needs a following. I bet they wish they would have bitten the bullet and gotten someone to do a review of it, I suspect it would have had a better following. But like a house that's been on the market too long, it has the stink of not passing the smell test to many and they pass on it.

PS: Added Pics below. Modified nose gear allows ground stance to make up for the too far aft placement of the main gear, and this mod then allows for decent takeoffs now. It solved 70 percent of "my issues" with the model from that ans also replacing the inadequate nose gear retract with one that works. Beer cooler foam construction makes for easy mods, a little thin sheet plastic styrene cleans up/caps off the mess.

Wow thanks for the info!

I am an experienced flyer (19 years now) and fly mainly 3D (Extreme Flight planes), but do have some scale biplanes and such.

I have experience in building and such just not sure how much I want to do on a brand new model.

Thanks all!

Mike

E.P. don't get me wrong I really like the 35, as a model it flies more stable than a lot of other designs to me. Its just the overall size of either mentioned jet is just that 'tad too big' for the recommended systems, with all the extras you have an EDF that flies impolitely.
On the other hand the eps is a plus. My thing is going fast so selecting a frame is a mater of area/mass for me. I enjoy tweaking an entire foam frame to make it work as they all should, carbon spars and fuse stiffeners, mild power update and hang on!

made it to 149.9mph level flight on this one! Airfield F-35 kit from nitro reworked, 3lbs topped off.

Eddie P covered most of my sentiments with the exception of what killed the LX model. The lack of a proper duct I think killed it. Because of it the model doesn't perform well and who wants to by a model that doesn't perform well.
I too have both and the LX is sitting on the shelf till I come up with a proper duct. Both could have had the landing gear sit in the proper location and rotate forward like the real one. My FW is a belly lander because of it after trying with the EPF rotating retracts.

I prefer the LX size as a 70 seeing that 70s have only increased their performance with some pushing much more than the weight of either of these models.

The disappointment with the FW is its hardly to scale. Both as foam kits are under $100 so try both.

The lack of a proper duct I think killed it

I noticed that when assembling one for a friend. The first airfield I had only had a plenum just after the intakes, the present one was split open and duct divider and ESC fairing was added, More importantly to the flight envelope are the trailing edges. A person can gain almost 20 mph by making them thin as a real airfoil not 3/16 thick, all flight surfaces that is. Yup my gear retract reversed to the real scale but they do retract out of the flow. The other advantage to me is the CG change retracted. A lighter nose during flight and slightly heavier for landing. Takeoff is a dream to watch, shoot it down the runway and it lifts off beautifully on the same track, no jumping.

Is the LX Model the same as the BlitzRCworks BZ-35?

Originally Posted by JGuilty13

Is the LX Model the same as the BlitzRCworks BZ-35?

Yes, that's the LX (Lanxiang)....... BlitzRCworks is just Banana Hobby's re-branding

What about the Windrider F-35. I'm building one now. Got the kit for $35 plus shipping. Ming is clearing them out. Has nice ducting and large battery tray. Might be worth a look.

I joined Rc Groups just to inform anyone who has purchased the LX (Lanxiang) BH (Banana Hobby) BlitzRCWorks BZ - 35 (F 35) about the issues and success ive had with it:

1) DO NOT BUY the Radio (Tx) with KIT, this may be a given to the experienced flyer but the radio barely controlled any of the flight functions. (Go with a DX8 or better)

2) Plastic Gear broke first landing......if you use them make sure you compress the shock first as they come stiff out of the box. Also there is a control arm on the plastic gear near the side (plastic arm with rotating shaft) This shaft needs to be supported (especially the smaller arm) - I went ahead and installed eflight 10-15 retracts.

3) Center of Gravity issue. I am no engineer but i do know that the recommended COG is off or something. All i did to correct was install the battery horizontally (almost as if it were underneath the cockpit) . The directions have the battery sliding in the battery compartment vertically.

4) Last but not least however i think is the most important: Wing mounting. The well for the wings is extremely thin. I used 5 min filling expoxy that holds great and i use on everyhting.....needless to say, it did NOT hold. I am F35-less because of this. Make sure you install wing spars
If you do not and you pull a high g, you will loose the aircraft as i did.


Now a normal person would probably move on to the next plane but i will/did not. The BH LX BZ-35 was sooo awesome to fly and so scale. The 5s battery, 50a esc, and 70mm motor combo was plenty of power. In fact i dont think it even needs internal ducting, cant imagine how much nicer it would fly with some ducting tho. I have ordered a new airframe only kit from bananahobby.com and will transfer all the electronics from my crashed plane as they seem to have survived. (and if anyone is wondering, no bananahobby did not replace my airframe for free, is just a poor design from factory but can be easily corrrected when building)

I work for the F-35 program so showing this scale rc plane off was a hit at my offices and would be at any park/field.

Originally Posted by the1upper

....Wing mounting. The well for the wings is extremely thin. I used 5 min filling expoxy that holds great and i use on everyhting.....needless to say, it did NOT hold. I am F35-less because of this. Make sure you install wing spars
If you do not and you pull a high g, you will loose the aircraft as i did.

.....In fact i dont think it even needs internal ducting, cant imagine how much nicer it would fly with some ducting tho.....

Curious but where did the wing break? In the epoxy connection or in the wing. If epoxy breaks you mixed it incorrectly. Epoxy ends up being stonger than just about every other part of the model and there is posted vid etc showing wings coming off but later hear what wasn't done properly.

However, especially if adding a larger batt I agree with a CF wing spar. What also needs to be done is poking holes and dimples at the seam or on the two ajoining surfaces. Some even use toothpicks or bamboo sticks. That way its not the foam ripping away off the epoxy because the epoxy had no foam to hold on to.

As for the proper duct..... poor flow to the fan will always reduce the fans performance. There is probably a decade in the making of a long read on the topic by engineers that have posted threads and discussed the topic. Even cheat holes add to load and reduce flow performance so a wide open, bumpy swirling interior does mess with the fan flow. The experiment has be repeated many times that a constant area smooth duct with no sharp turns is optimal.