Peoples,

I submit for your perusal, images of my F-20 design.

I had the good folks at Manzano Laser cut the parts for me.

Soon to follow are build photos.

It has all wood construction - mostly balsa, some lite ply, a little heavy ply, and hardwood. Sort of a giant Guillow's model (see my F-16 Guillow's thread). Or in other words, an attempt to try and emulate Pat Trittle's design approach in a jet airframe.

If it goes in, it will disintegrate like a real jet.

Wingspan 32" (scale, not stretched, wooooooo)
Length 57"

It will have retracts and flaps because taking off and landing pretty is half the fun.

Designed for Klaus' 400 fan unit although the Wemotec unit can be fitted.

The concept here is to build as light as possible and use a relatively small fan with a maxed out power setup. I'm thinking a Neu motor is in order. Maybe use a 6s battery or two 3s packs in series. That way I can use the 3s packs for something else if desired. Plus a higher cell count means a smaller and lighter ESC can be used as well as smaller wires. Any advice or opinions here would be appreciated.

I realize that this thing is not going to fly as fast as some ducted fan jets but that is ok. I am going for scale flight speed, not mach 9.

I wanted to create an accurate scale model that had all the curves and subtle features that most if not all the existing F-20 models are lacking. Something you could detail up for a scale contest if so desired.

Because I'm such a skin-flint I also wanted a larger jet (but not too big to fit in the back of my 944) that didn't cost a lot of bucks to build and equip.

Looks awesome to me. I also really like Solidworks' rendered modes. I'm using TurboCAD and the renders look pretty good but they don't show the part outlines.

Looking forward to seeing the build!

Wow that was a quick response.

Very astute call recognizing SolidWorks. This whole process is like magic.

I'll post build pics tonight.

Signing on, this is interesting stuff. I've always fancied the F-5/F-20 and alltough I have a HET F-20 it can't exactly be called true to scale.

For a lot of power in the WM400 on 6S, a Neu 1115/2D is a good motor, I'm gonna test this combo when I find the time to balance the fan. I suggest you take a look in this thread, some good suggestions on setups there : https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=853888

Thanks Arngeir, I'll check it out.

Lance

American born, full-blood Norwegian, but the only Norsk I know is "uffda" (its what you say when you crash and other things).

Nice!

Ahhh...you like balsa, build to fly scale like and own a 944? We have a few things in common, I also have a 944 (951)

that is SWEET. the F-20 is one of my all time fav's.

I like that, Lance! Will you be sheeting the structure or using shrink film? I also enlarged the Guillows F-16. But, I ended up changing it to a pusher. I insert planked only certain areas and silked the rest, open structure. In the air, you could not notice.

Fuzz

Hey, there's some interest here.

Alright Kevin, mine's a '91 S2. My neighbor down the block has a 951. There's another guy on ezone (944S2) that writes for a fairly well known car magazine who influenced my decision to get an S2 (simpler, lower insurance, the "T" word u-know). Hey, I'm hijacking my own thread.

Fuzz: I suppose it could be left open structure but I plan on sheeting with contest balsa and then nelson lite film (solite). It looks so much better sheeted and doesn't add much weight if light balsa is used.

I think the F-20 is a mean looking jet. Plus it's configuration makes landing gear installation fairly straightforward. And it was the underdog that lost and I feel sort of sorry for it.

Build photos soon...

Lance, how do you plan on making the ducting for it? Do you have vacuum-forming capabilities?

I just finished designing one plane, which is a ducted fan jet but not a scale model and doesn't require any complicated ducting. Since I have to wait to build it I want to start a scale subject now, but I'm limited to things like the F-86 that have a fairly simple ducting design.

only reason it lost was politics. the F-20 would wife the sky with a F-16.

Here's progress so far.

The ducting is actually very simple and has no compound curves so it can be made from balsa. I might have to wrap it with some hi-tech thread to strengthen it. I should post an image with the ducts turned on.

Ok, enough messing with a computer - I gotta go to bed.

great job, I like the way you described the goals, then designed to meet them. it has been a while since we have seen a good build.

Very nice! Signed on!

and have been thinking about getting one eventually. Just bought a 986 a few months back and want to someday get one of everything they have made. The 944 series has always been at the front of that list because it is fairly econonical and looks so muscular.

What type of retracts are you going to use on this? The build so far looks great.