Jump to content

Vintage design - electrified?


Ian Whittaker
 Share

Recommended Posts

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of electrifying a large(ish) vintage design please? I'm thinking Ben Buckle's Long Cabin, Radio Queen, that kind of size? I've built and flown both in the past and loved them, but glow powered. Am I right in thinking that such designs are usually short nosed - which wouldn't help when trying to balance as the power train seems to be lighter, especially the motor when compared to a similar engine.

I know this may upset folk, contaminating such a design with pesky electrical power, but site restrictions being what they are....

thanks,

Ian

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Radio Queen #1.jpgRadio Queen.jpgRadio Queen - Flies a dream now on 3S LiPo. The light wing loading, they float around on a whisper of power. (Oh and the original Col. Taplin 'Radio Queen' actually flew using electric power in 1957 using a war surplus Emerson electric motor and banks of zinc cells - Aeromodeller reports with pictures confirm)

Edited By Capt Kremen on 27/12/2020 19:01:39

Edited By Capt Kremen on 27/12/2020 19:03:11

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Considering Col. Taplin used an electric powered Radio Queen to cross the English Channel in 1957 I'm sure nobody will think you new fangled if you use electric power around 65 years later.

Vintage models are quite undemanding on power needs as the Capt above points out.

You could do worse than take a look at the 4-max models web page devoted to electric setup descriptions for the vintage models kitted by Belair models.

Even if your exact choice of model is not there, you will be able to see ballpark motor, prop and ESC sizes.

**LINK**

Edited By Alan Gorham_ on 27/12/2020 19:04:25

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by Ian Whittaker on 27/12/2020 18:34:06:

Hi,

Does anyone have any experience of electrifying a large(ish) vintage design please? I'm thinking Ben Buckle's Long Cabin, Radio Queen, that kind of size? I've built and flown both in the past and loved them, but glow powered. Am I right in thinking that such designs are usually short nosed - which wouldn't help when trying to balance as the power train seems to be lighter, especially the motor when compared to a similar engine.

I know this may upset folk, contaminating such a design with pesky electrical power, but site restrictions being what they are....

thanks,

Ian

Ina, Electric is good..Clean and better looking..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Vintage models fly beautifully on electric power.

Note that elsewhere on the forum it says that Ben Buckle kits are hard to get at the moment due to Colin Buckle being unwell. Also balsa is in very short supply. Many vintage plans are available free on Outerzone though and strip balsa seems available while sheet is not.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Posted by Alan Gorham_ on 27/12/2020 19:03:19:

Considering Col. Taplin used an electric powered Radio Queen to cross the English Channel in 1957 I'm sure nobody will think you new fangled if you use electric power around 65 years later.

Edited By Alan Gorham_ on 27/12/2020 19:04:25

Alan, I didn't know that Col. Taplin crossed the channel with electric power in '57.
Have you got any references or other info (e.g. A/M report).
That would be most interesting.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Haha, erm, yes it's spot the deliberate mistake time!

Of course it would have been a tremendous ask to expect the silver zinc cells and primitive brushed motor to carry a model across the channel back then...

I am conflating Taplins electric powered flight of his Radio Queen with the IC powered flight across the channel.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There are various reports regarding Col. Taplin and the 'Radio Queen' model including other references to a Mr Peter Cock involvement in the design. I have details of the Aeromodeller report and will shortly upload these under a separate post so as not to further detour from the original enquirers question.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

This thread on a electrified vintage (Modified Ben Buckle Double Diamond). Needed a lot of lead to balance a heavy tail. I have that model now and it carries the weight (about 9 1/2 lbs all up) very well. Particularly lovely to land. The battery is behind the motor. Peter Miller's option of battery below the motor brings that weight forward, and many of these models have very deep chins to allow that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ian Whittaker See Personal Message (PM) sent.

My 'Radio Queen' has flown with numerous engines (i/c) and motors (electric) in its long life to date. These include OS 40 four-stroke, Oliver Tiger Diesel, Astro 40 Cobalt Geared electric, Graupner SPEED 700 with belt reduction drive and now a Overlander 'Tornado' C3548 900Kv brushless driving a 13 x 4 APC E prop. A 3S 3300mAh LiPo provides the electrons into a 40A ESC with SBEC. (I see Overlander now offer a 'Thumper V3' motor of similar spec).

The LiPo battery, as in many of my vintage/old-timer models, is inserted vertically in the front of the model. It is secured against one of the front ply formers (F2 or F3?), usually under the leading edge of the wing. As a comparison, it first flew with 14 H-e-a-v-y Sanyo NiCad Cells with the Astro 40 motor, weighed close to 7 Lbs and still flew! You can image the plane almost 'jumps' into the air on 3S LiPo using the far more efficient brushless motor. After the initial burst of power to get airborne and avoid any risk of ground swing, the throttle is quickly brought back and the motor barely ticks over but still keeps the plane aloft.

(I will shortly post details of Col.Taplin's efforts and other early electric models in a new thread).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back to 2012 and here is my Mercury Matador from a Ben Buckle kit. A quick look at the photos on this page and you'll see I did electric and diesel swappable front ends.

I didn't have any trouble balancing at all.

The thing I'd suggest to watch, is not to overpower it. These models were designed to bumble around very gently and don't take kindly to any attempt to fly them faster.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Murat, Nothing really to show as there's little difference outside. The only really major update was the fiiting of a removable bridged plug on the outside of the cabin to enable a quick power down on landing(To isolate the Lipo, as there are to many amps for most simple switches).Battery platform under motor, plenty of room on these vintage types of this size. This helped with the CG.

The previous owner fitted the motor & ESC

I must own up to the fact that I have no idea how to post a picture on this Forum, thats the main reason, apart from the fact there is very little difference between before and after!!!

Bas

Edited By Basil on 28/12/2020 13:42:35

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I built a double sized Tomboy off plans drawn up by my late uncle. It is powered by a French brushless motor a Twister 40 and a 3S 4000 mAh Lipo but it was originally fitted with a PAW 19 then a Merco 35. Build blog, history of the model and lots of irrelevant stuff here: **LINK**

The model is on its fourth fuselage! Can you tell which is the first and which is the most recent manifestation from the two pictures below? wink

tomboy with my much younger self..jpg

electric tomboy.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

For Alan G., Ha ha, that's what I suspected! Note that the commonly seen video of the Colonel's electric RQ only shows a hand launch that looks like it didn't get away, otherwise the video would have been continued.

I won't bother with the various A/M RQ reports over the years, they've been posted loads of times, both on here and on other forums.

However, some of you may not have seen this video. From 26 seconds there is superb footage of Peter Cock flying his prototype modified RQ, with an ED 2.49cc side-port diesel. The look on his face when the thing is successfully flying around is priceless.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ian - there is an alternate source of vintage kits -Belair who do laser cut parts for designs such as Black Magic, Black Beauty etc etc. I am not sure if you get the stripwood too or if it's just a semi kit.

Another worthwhile website is 4Max one of many pages showing electric setups includes Radio Queen, Majestic Major etc

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...