Original Design
Span: 18"
Wing Area: 121 sq. in.
Weight: 8 ounces
Channels: 2 (elevons)
Engine: Tee Dee .051
w/ GloBee head, and pen bladder tank
Radio: Ace Silver 7 tx,
Royal rx, Futaba servos
Materials: foam wing,
with balsa, spruce, and ply
Performance:
Extremely fast roll rate!
Checked with Camcorder
at FIVE rolls per second!
(That's 300 rpm!!!)
Speed: 100+ mph
The DaWing 049 just sort of "happened" to get built. It was really just the result of one of my flying buddies (Bob) and myself trying to see just how much performance we could get out of an R/C plane powered by a Tee Dee 049/051.
So I dreamed up a half size version of one of my well proven 36" DaWing designs, and called it the DaWing 049, which you see here. Bob built a Tee Dee 049 powered delta model that looked sort of like a 1/2 size Diamond Dust. Both planes were about equally fast.....easily over 100 mph. My DaWing 049 rolled faster than his, and climbed faster than his, but Bob's delta plane was MUCH easier to fly! In fact, once the engine quits, the DaWing 049 doesn't really glide worth a $#!+!!!!!!! Bob's delta winged model would easily glide in for a landing.
Both designs used fully symmetrical foam wings, spanned about 18", and used 3/4" wide elevons. The DaWing 049 weighed 8 oz ready to fly, and Bob's delta design weighed about 11 oz. The vertical fins that you see on the web page ultimately ended up being relocated out near the inner edge of the red stripes to get them out of the propeller slipstream. Also, about 4 degrees of right thrust was added to help tame the launch. With the fins in the slipstream, and without the right thrust, the DaWing 049 was almost impossible to launch successfully. Of course Bob's delta design was easy to launch WITHOUT having to modify it! <Grrrrrrrrrr> So, even though my DaWing 049 rolled faster than Bob's design, and it outclimbed his design, at least his plane was relatively easy to launch, easy to fly, and easy to land.....when compared to mine.
At the time, I never understood why my 36" DaWing design flew so well, and the half size DaWing 049 was so touchy and unstable on the controls. I now believe that the old Royal Electronics receiver that I was flying it with was letting the servos "dither", which made the plane APPEAR to be aerodynamically unstable......even though it probably wasn't. Bob used a Futaba 2 channel receiver in his plane, and his plane felt rock solid on the controls, even though both of us used identical Futaba S-133 servos, and both of us used Ace Silver Seven transmitters. Someday, I'm going to build another DaWing 049........and put a GOOD receiver in it.......just to find out!
Mainly because of it's small size and extreme speed, the DaWing 049 was one of the most challenging R/C planes that I ever flew........(except for that darn R/C Monarch Butterfly!). When Bob moved away, my interest in Half-A R/C faded away too. The DaWing 049 logged about 100 flights before it was retired, but it sure opened my eyes to what an 049 powered R/C plane is capable of achieving!
And now, after flying a DaWing 049, EVERYTHING else seems like a trainer!
:-)
Comments?
E-Mail me at:
dmcdnld@yhti.net