J-10B fighter

[19000rpm]

Well, I wanted something different for an EDF so I chose the J-10B from World Models. The model comes ARF with only the Rx and ESC to add.

This is a picture of the real thing.



Wing span: 28.7
Length: 42.7

Fan: 67mm

One of the reasons I chose this plane is that it includes a rudder, not just elevons.

Since I don't have a smooth runway I'll need to beef up the LG and wheels or make it a belly lander. That ought to be interseting with the air scoop being so large. In fact, the scoop looks a lot like a shovel. ;D

[Gabe]

Whoah! Sweet plane. We're gonna need pics of this puppy when it comes

I'm gonna move this thread to edf foamies for us too.

[19000rpm]

Apr 27, 2010 10:14:11 GMT -6 Gabe said:

Whoah! Sweet plane. We're gonna need pics of this puppy when it comes

I'm gonna move this thread to EDF foamies for us too.

You know, I thought I was posting it in EDF foamies, thanks for moving it. ;D

I'll take some pics of the kit.

It's amazingly like the Eurofighter 2000. I think the Chinese "borrowed" the concept except that the Eurofighter uses 2 engines and the J10-B used one Russian built flame thrower, originally, and now has a Chinese engine.

BTW, I was talking to a guy yesterday that is building a F-16 gas turbine (17 lbs of thrust) with a 58" wing span. Glass, plywood and CF (Tamiya, I think) construction. The thing even has brakes. It burns a half gallon of fuel per flight.

[akent]

Wow on all accounts!

I had no idea that the Chinese were cloning fighters. I guess that should really be no surprise.

It will be interesting to hear how that flies!

Where did you get the kit?

I would love to get an EDF at some point that has really good power to weight ratio, to where it has overpowering unlimited vertical.

The turbine sounds incredible. I have never witnessed one up close. They are not able to fly in the south Austin field, as there are too many flammable things nearby in case of a crash.
I do understand that EDF's are surpassing turbines in power, at least the smaller ones.
Kent

[19000rpm]

Apr 27, 2010 18:42:57 GMT -6 akent said:

Wow on all accounts!

I had no idea that the Chinese were cloning fighters. I guess that should really be no surprise.

It will be interesting to hear how that flies!

Where did you get the kit?

I would love to get an EDF at some point that has really good power to weight ratio, to where it has overpowering unlimited vertical.

The turbine sounds incredible. I have never witnessed one up close. They are not able to fly in the south Austin field, as there are too many flammable things nearby in case of a crash.
I do understand that EDF's are surpassing turbines in power, at least the smaller ones.
Kent

I got the kit from Hobby Zone. It's not on their website yet.

The Chinese started the project in the 80's but only got it operational in the late 90's. The Israelis helped developed it and the Pakistanis are buying a bunch of them.

I haven't found any specs on the motor as yet, (I haven't opened the manual yet and it's not on the box.) but I assumed by the relatively low price of the kit it's not going to be that great and anticipate replacing it.

The foam is EPO and the molding is nice. It's all medium/dark gray so I'll spray some white on the bottom and add some red or yellow stripes on the wing for added visibility.

The Turbine guys are in a world of their own. If you've ever heard one you can understand why. The sound alone will bring out the alpha male in a 90 pound basket weaver. ;D

[Gabe]

Oh man that's cool. I've always wanted a turbine. Maybe after a few years of pay-per-views I could afford one. I hear they are a blast!

[19000rpm]

Apr 28, 2010 6:36:02 GMT -6 Gabe said:

Oh man that's cool. I've always wanted a turbine. Maybe after a few years of pay-per-views I could afford one. I hear they are a blast!

He paid around 1500 for the turbine. New US company and I'm guessing the plane about the same plus electronics so I think you can be into it for around 5K or less. Come on Pay Per View.

[19000rpm]

I cracked open the kit. Some observations and first impressions:

Found the motor is 3600kV inrunner producing 375 watts on a lowly 2100 15C battery. No thrust figures that I saw.

Flying weight is around 28.5 Ozs. It's probably not going to be that fast, but it will do until I upgrade the power and maybe the fan.

The intake is HUGE (I'll get a photo of it later) and totally unobstructed so it should be very efficient moving air.

On first inspection, I found everything to be well thought out. Not a lot of plastic pieces. Which is fine by me. The servos mount inside the wing and the arms stick out through slots in, screwed on, panels. More about this later.

The EPO foam is very smooth, smoother than Horizons"Z" foam, and dense. It appears to have a slightly smaller foam cell than "Z" foam. The molding is extremely precise. Better than anything I've seen in other EDF's I've looked at with the exception of, possibly, the Habu.

Repalcement airframes are about 50-60 bucks.

Here's what it looks like right out of the box.


Nicely molded parts with fine detail you can't see in the photo.

This is the spot for the fan. Notice the little white tab. It has a string running forward to the equipment compartment to fish the wires through. Nice Touch.

The equipment compartment with the other end of the fishing line.

The pieces come together nicely in the "dry" fit.

[Gabe]

Awesome pics! I'm getting excited about this one.

[19000rpm]

The weather is going to be lousy for the next 2-3 days so I should make some headway in putting it together.

This is much more of a kit than most ARF's I've built. The motor/fan needs to be assembled. Nothing is installed and even the servo mounts need to be built. This is more than OK with me. Better than having a factory assembled plane that comes apart in the air as I've heard so many times.

[akent]

Looks great!
Man, I sure am glad you finally got a camera, 19k!!

[19000rpm]

Thanks guys. I think I'm really going enjoy this plane.

I didn't get any farther with it today. Good intentions, but the P51 rebuild is behind schedule (at least I pretend to have a schedule) and I worked on that. Choices, choices. ;D

Tomorrow, if time permits, I'll be taking the first few build steps by assembling the fan/motor and installing the aileron servos after I check the electronics.

In the meantime, before the build is complete, I need to find a good runway to fly this plane off of. A few hundred feet, or more, of smooth surface. The best site candidate is probably a lightly used road without too many utility poles, wires crossing the road and trees bordering it. Maybe an unfinished subdivision.

[19000rpm]

OK, back to the build.

This is taking a bit longer than I thought since everything up to now has needed some modification except the building of the fan and motor. Forgot to take pictures of that.

The aileron servo mounting plate needed to be built out of the base, and 2 triangular brackets to mount the servo to.

Installing the aileron servos required gluing in a laser cut plywood base to screw the servo mounting plate to.


Both the mounting plate and the plywood base needed cutting to fit. I don't think the included servos and arms were part of the original design. Either that or I missed something.


After surgery everything fit nicely.


The big horizontal slot above the servos is for the CF reinforcement tube. The small vertical slots are for the faux rockets. Hey, wasn't somebody working on functional rockets? I'd like a couple of those. ;D

[19000rpm]

The major pieces are together.

I did an electronics test. I'm using a AR6110 and a Pro 30A Eflite ESC. The 67mm Fan looks to produce enough, but not abundant, thrust.

All else is looking good so far with the exception of the servo for the steerable nosewheel/rudder. I think it is too small and weak for the job. I think I may install a MG servo.




Nice equipment bay. Plenty of room to adjust component placement for a good CG.


This is one BIG frickin' air scoop.

[akent]

It's interesting and nice that you have a real kit on your hands!
I like to build those parts of the plane, just so you know it's done right.

I like it!