Falco (oz14720)
About this Plan
Falco. Radio control sport model, for electric power with brushless motor and 2S lipo. Wingspan 100 cm.
Direct submission to Outerzone.
Quote: "Designing and building Falco was an on/off project that lasted several years. It recently flew for the first time. My aim was maximum efficiency, build a plane with snappy performance using a low power motor. I am very pleased with the result and would like to make the design available on Outerzone. I have attached the plan, a brief description, some photos and an svg file. Using this file, the parts with a complex shape can be lasercut. Many thanks for Outerzone! Peter Ingels"
Quote: "Falco is an exercise in efficiency, an attempt to get a good performing model plane using a low power brushless motor.
A leftover 1806 2280kv drone motor combined with a 50gram 1000Mah 2s lipo was the starting point.
The fuselage was kept as simple and small as possible, without compromising easy access to the battery and servos. The only luxury item is the canopy, it is removable and serves as battery access hatch. There is no landing gear to avoid extra drag and weight. 2 nylon M3 screws are used to attach the wing to the fuselage. The front part of the fuselage is rather long to compensate for the low weight of the power setup. With the battery installed below the canopy and the servos positioned as shown on the plan no balance weight is needed.
I used the MH31 airfoil for the wing. The wing spar is a pultruded carbon tube with a 5mm outer diameter & 4mm inner diameter, the leading edge is a 1.5mm diameter solid carbon rod. The aileron servos (Emax ES9051) are permanently installed into the wing during the build. These servos are just small enough to fit, zero margin! The wing ribs are tiny. A lot of precision, patience and a very sharp knife will be needed if they cannot be lasercut. I included an .svg file.
Weight including lipo is 250gram.
The result is everything I hoped for, perfect harmony. Falco has snappy performance and can even be flown in windy conditions.
It isn’t a hotliner, that was not the aim. The 1806 2280kv motor can be used with a 3s lipo. This will increase power output a lot, but do away with the aim of the exercise: good performance using low power."
Supplementary file notes
Notes.
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(oz14720)
Falco
by Peter Ingels
2023
39in span
Electric R/C
clean :)
all formers complete :)
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Submitted: 30/07/2023
Filesize: 200KB
Format: • PDFbitmap
Credit*: Peter Ingels
Downloads: 808
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User comments
Nice design and build. But a 1806 2280kv motor from Emax pulls 115 watts and has 460 gms thrust on full power. For a 250 gm model that’s over 200w/lb, and thrust/weight of nearly 2.Not exactly ‘low power’, eh?
Regards
Iyer
K K Iyer - 03/08/2023
Are those figures for 2s or 3s?
SteveWMD - 03/08/2023
Well and truly caught. The data I posted is correct, but for max power on 3s.
The author specifically stated 2s, and the plan shows a 6x4 prop. With that setup, it’s a measly 2.3 amps and 17 watts for 120 gms thrust.
I owe the designer an apology for shooting my mouth off.
Regards
Iyer
K K Iyer - 03/08/2023
As stated in the description, I run the model on a 2s lipo. I am using a motor of a different brand, but the specs will be similar anyway. On 2s it will give 288gr of thrust at 7.0A (52W) with an efficiency of 5.5 gr/W. on 3s it will indeed have a thrust of 468gr but will draw 11.5A and have an efficiency of only 3.7 gr/W. Using a 3s lipo is perfectly possible. The lipo will be heavier due to the extra cell and if you want the same flight duration you will need to increase its capacity by 65% as the motor demands a higher current. My priority was efficiency so I went for the 2s option. I made provisions on the plan for a heavier 3s lipo but remember, when you add 50gr to a 250gr model it is 20% heavier...
Peter Ingels - 03/08/2023
Hello Peter, I like your Falco design and intend to cut it on my new laser cutter. Just one question about mounting the wing, I see the F4 bolt plate but how does it work on top of the wing, do you just drill through R1 to mount? Is there a ply plate for the bolt to bear on ? Just a bit confused about how it works there.
Roger Keatley - 08/08/2023
Hi Roger, I built the wing without any provision for these bolts. Once the fuselage and wing (without top fairing) were finished I put the two together, properly aligned everything and made tick marks on both. I then screwed the bolts bottom side up into the F4 locking nuts until they protruded a hair from the topside of the fuselage and put the wing back on. The pressure marks made by the bolts were used to drill the holes in the wing. I glued some scrap wood around the front hole to raise the bolt head a bit and used two ply wood plates to locally reinforce the wing around both holes. If you decide to go ahead, I advise you to use good quality wood for the wing ribs (they are very tiny) and think twice about a correct working sequence to get the the aileron servos in. Good luck!
Peter Ingels - 08/08/2023
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- Falco (oz14720)
- Plan File Filesize: 200KB Filename: Falco_oz14720.pdf
- Supplement Filesize: 244KB Filename: Falco_oz14720_notes.pdf
- CAD Zip Filesize: 34KB Filename: Falco_oz14720_cad.zip
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Notes
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