Just for something different….

The subject of this issue is more to do with outdoor free flight and for once, nothing to do with me?  Over the last decade and a bit, I have built a close liaison with Steve Glass, a renowned name in the Indoor and Outdoor free flight competition scene and regular guest flyer (BMFA) at our very own RAFMAA Indoor champs.  Steve has built a reputation both at the RAFMAA Indoor meetings and also the BMFA Indoor and Outdoor Nationals for his models of jet fighters made from both blue foam and all balsa and powered by an electric ducted fan propulsion unit.

Having re-located to Guernsey, we still keep in regular contact by phone and also through a few visits during the year, thus keeping my enthusiasm going.  One of the common interests that we have had over the last few years has been the modification of CD Rom motors for model aircraft power (See the Downloads page on the RAFMAA Website for detailed articles on the subject).  Steve has gone a step further and has been experimenting with high revolution motors for use with a ducted fan.  This was brought on by the high mortality of the brushed motors as supplied with commercial fan units.  Below are pictures of Steve’s Indoor scale jets flown both at the RAFMAA champs and also the BMFA scale Nat’s at Nottingham University.

From here on, Steve has developed his own fan unit constructed from plywood and driven by his CD Rom motor conversions.  This fan unit now powers his latest model of  a North American FJ-4 Fury, constructed from Balsa, which was inspired from these drawings.

I attach a copy of the building details and specifications from Steve’s latest ducted fan unit as inspiration to any budding home experimenter.

Phil Morgan – Indoor Comp Sec.