What's the smallest ducted fan currently in use and practical? Do any go below the 30mm size?

Take a look at this one. https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=849614

From what I've read surfing the internet, the EDF 30 by GWS is the smallest DF out there, but there's no easy performance motor combo for it yet with out a lot of modification. If you've found anything different, please share. I'm looking for a ducted fan about the size of a quarter to power an indoor flyer small enough to fly in a large living room. Think micro scale F-16 from heat shaped 1mm depron.

Its a nice thought, but DF by their very nature are faster than prop driven planes. I suspect it is going to take a DF at around 8-12g AUW to do what you are proposing. An EDF30 is only 5mm larger than a quarter, so you really arent looking for something that much smaller than the commercial stuff.

I have a large living room, and a ParkZone Citabra at 18g is still way too fast to do anything but full deflection circles. Even a lot of the really small stuff, like the 1/72nd scale warbirds at 3-4g eat up space in a big hurry.

And after thinking about it, its actually probably going to take a DF at about 5g, since most jet designs have significantly less wing area than the designs we would normally use for living room style flyers.

Good luck with it, I would love to have a F-16 living room flyer too, but I think we are going to need another exponential decrease in radio and electronics to have a chance at it. Think ParkZone gear at 30%, with a 20mAh battery running a 4mm motor in a 10mm DF...in a .125 durabatics shell...maybe.


***Sorry, i read the thread all wrong...EDF30 is the smallest commercial available EDF unit...matched with the Losi 10k its pretty powerful, 90g or so IIRC.

Look around here in the threads, there are some 20 and 15mm EDF projects using handbuilt impellors and custom wound motors.***

The Air Hogs Jetscream used twin ducted props, basically a prop in a tube. Not a true fan, but small and fairly light.

Hi Folks...

One of those JetScream units, has served me well on an Ember, and it came out a gram lighter.

It flew on the stock 70mah battery for a good 4 minutes, and because of the large added thrust ring up front, it had LOTS of static thrust, and with the flap mod I had on it, it was able to fly comfortably in a 40' by 40' room, doing figure eights.

All of this and a vid have been shared several times on these various threads.

Bob Reynolds
. "ComeUpHere"

I'm not sure what prevents the jetscream propulsion from being fans, as I recall they feature some intake lip curvature as well as curved stators.

The fan + motor weighs about 5 grams, and produces a bit over 10 grams of thrust on a 1 cell lipo.

Actually, they say that the Jetscreem 2 bladed impellor was actually designed to be in a duct. I've heard that you only get half the thrust out of the duct. Also, it uses a 7mm motor.