categorising models

[Antony Wright]

Ok we all have a fairly good idea of what a trainer airplane is - and from the mags we get a fairly good idea of what 3D models are (as they seem to be in vogue in most mags) or even warbirds - but what about the other categories?
Can anyone suggest models that fall into say the sort of thing you would use to follow up a trainer? or can anyone tell us what other categories there are andd what planes we might expect to fall into those categories?

[Alistair Taylor]

Could you suggest a word limit for responses to this question?

As a starter;

Sport planes - Anything powered that looks sorta like a real aeroplane (low wing, or high wing) but that isn't strictly scale, although could be...sorta scale.

Scale planes - Looks like a real aeroplane - although this would cover a multitude of aeroplane types, from slow flying piper cubs to spine tingling prop jets (one might want to subdivide this category further)

Jets - Scale model of a jet, or sport model (e.g. Boomerang) powered by a real jet turbine

Ducted fans - Scale or sport but...powered by a ducted fan

Electric - ditto but...electric - although electric power is now used across the board, not just for powered gliders

Vintage (Lightly loaded, usually high winged models that are designed to fly in big slow circles without human intervention, and usually show their displeasure at being asked to flick roll under radio control by shedding wings - see the ben buckle plans service for lots of amazing flying machines)

Flying wings - Can be scale, sport, free flight, silent flight or jet, so possibly a cross-cutting sub-category

Gliders - Can be scale or sport, but also contains other subdivisions - like thermal/aerobatic/slope, which themselves can be subdivided further, e.g. lightly loaded slope soarer, aerobatic slope plane, Power Slope Scale sloper, high speed guided missile (ask Andy Ellison)

Unorthodox (this is a very subjective category. If you're a rugged traditionalist you might want to include flying wings in this category, along with canard wings, ornithopters, gyrocopters, tandem wing planes, assymetric layouts and ...well....flying 2CVs...flying hamburgers.....Pteranodons....)

And then of course there are indoor radio control planes, ranging from borderline parkflyers to planes costing more per gramme than platinum...

So.....use your newfound knowledge to answer the following;

1) If you use a plan drawn up in 1950 of a free flight rubber powered piper cub to build an indoor R/C version...are you building a vintage plane, a scale plane, a free-flight plane or an electric plane, or a combination of all of these?

2) If, while building a scale spitfire, you use the wrong shade of blue for the pilot's eyes, does this make it a sport plane? Would your answer be different if you were participating in the scale nationals?

3) You lose radio contact with your model of a lancaster bomber while flying at a site on the side of a hill. Three out of the four IC motors shut down as the failsafe operates. In the seconds before your pride and joy, spinning like a top on one engine, is reduced to matchwood is it;
a) Unorthodox
b) Free flight
c) Scale

[Antony Wright]

lol - Thanks Alistar. I can see there are quite a few varieties of style and Im sure that on this forum alone there has to be someone who could give very detailed explanations for each one.
As to your questions well I will have to give some thought to the answers (if there is indeed an answer). Having said that Im sure someone will come along now and provide them - and each person that answers will have a different answer :)
Well thats the first part of my query - now I wonder if anyone can help me out by puting a name or 2 to some of these types? - I guess the scale one can be excluded as it stands to reason that that can and should include every model of a plane that is made to scale :)