F4U Corsair - profile electric

[connolly115]

First off, you can call me crazy, it's the nicest thing anybody will have said to me today.

I'm not much of a social media guy and posting stuff on forums is just not something I do much of. But I designed and built this plane over the last couple of months, am happy with the way it has turned out so far, and wanted to share it.

Here’s some background:
It's been a long time since I stopped flying. Cleaning up the garage this fall I kept having to move my Top Flite Gold Corsair kit. I have had that kit for 25+ years. Looking at it got me wanting to relive my childhood and start building again. I was waiting to build that kit for a time when I could afford the 4-stroke motor, computer radio and retracts that it deserved. Life got in the way. I can now afford all that stuff but building that kit as a first step back into flying... well I'm not that crazy. As I start looking for something to build, I find out that nobody kits anything anymore (let alone an easy to build corsair). So I decided to scratch build something. Since I really wanted a Corsair (25 years of waiting for one was long enough) I would have to design it myself. Lucky for me I have access to 3D CAD software.

I have always loved the simplicity of building a profile, and the way it looks like a model that I'm not afraid to crash (probably has something to do growing up flying CL). Plus, a profile will be easy to fix after I break it on the maiden flight. I also decided to design this purely as a fun-fly plane. I’m not expecting it to do any ‘real’ 3D.

My all time favorite plane was a scratch built Hots that I bought at a swap meet as a teenager. Since that plane flew so good I decided to take the airfoil and general proportions and turn it into a Corsair. I did find some info on aircraft design, did a few calculations, and my design falls within the ranges for what they consider acceptable. And since this info came from MIT, how can I argue with it.
https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics ... 6/spl8.pdf

Since I will have to fly this in areas that are now populated (who says progress is good…) electric is the only option in my opinion. I did some research, banged my head off a table a few times, reread everything, banged my head some more, and then picked a motor and speed control that is probably overkill. But since I got an open box discount special ($41 for the motor), I figured what the ....
https://innov8tivedesigns.com/cobra-c-4 ... v-710.html

As for the pilot, who better to test fly a WWII airplane than the WWI Flying Ace (thanks to bro tcipolla for unknowing lending me his avatar for inspiration).

So, if you skipped all that stuff above, here is a summary:
-I haven’t flown in a long time (10+ years).
-I picked one of the hardest wings to build (gull wing), on a plane that is notorious for not being easy to fly (corsair).
-I chose to power it with a power source I have never used before.
-And as you will see in upcoming pictures, I chose to cover it in a traditional corsair color scheme so that I won’t be able to see it when I finally do try to fly it.

…maybe stupid would be more appropriate than crazy.

Anyway, I will attach some pictures of the CAD design and some build pics. Hopefully somebody will see this and be motivated to build something they always wanted but never took the time to do.

[connolly115]

Some pics.

[connolly115]

[connolly115]

[connolly115]

[smallfly]

I like it

[solv3nt]

Here I thought you were going to sell it. I flew some as a teenager, then again a few times in college. I haven't touched a plane in over 15 years, but I decided to fly a value hobbies epp edge540 as my first electric plane. At this point, after nine months of flying, I can hover and harrier. Keep the rates low and start slow. Read up on lipo's, they're pretty touchy.

[Heinz57]

Looks cool. Looking forward to the flight report

[Wild Fred]

awesome! but wf did it...

2004. thing was cool, saito 72, omp 540 gull wing.

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1561&hilit=profile+corsair

brought that and the full fuse sig ultimate to cookevile. constritor took out the bipe, but the corsair lived. flew it at nashbro the next year- the old nashbro site. scared a lotta folks, they weren't used to my "cockroach style" flying... all over the place, never die.. was a cool plane, i hope yours flies as good.

[johnnashville]

That's some great cad work.
The carving on the pilot, how was that done?
Nice build

[McDDD]

Very nice!

[connolly115]

Thanks for all the positive comments. Hopefully I'll get it finished up and have some decent weather to give it (and me) a test flight in the next few weeks/month.

That's some great cad work.
The carving on the pilot, how was that done?
Nice build

I taped a paper cutout to a piece of 1/4" balsa, cut the general shape with the scroll saw, and went at it with a #11 blade. Came out way better than I expected. I just need to get it painted before I install it in the cockpit.

[smallfly]

Put something on the bottom colorful. Grey becomes darn near invisible when it's up in the air

[Doug B]

Outstanding! Shoot a 30 second video of the maiden flight and put it on youtube.

[BirdStrike]

Awesome! Cant wait to hear how it flies. Or better yet a video!

[Straightup]

Very cool!

I noticed you signed up to the Bro site 7 days after I did waaaayy back in 2004!

[Wild Fred]

if you notice on mine, aft fuse part of the rudder.no coupling that way. just a tip. had the ace simple series foam wing cotsair oncw w/ a norvel 074 on it. great flier. spar setup cool- saw through the w shaped section where spar goes with a sawzall blade. glue in a 3" wide sheet 1/16 balsa. when dry, trim to fit wing. worked great, easy. my 40 size, just angled ribs and butt jointed, a little glass over joint. never broke. grooved gear blocks with ply 1/2ribs in center panels. 1/8 wire, such short gear plenty stiff. never broke them, either. i'd do another, but hellcat flew better. and wee-38 outflies any of the other warbirds.

[connolly115]

Straightup - I signed up for the site right around the time life was starting to get in the way. Never forgot about it though. When I decided to build again, this was the first place I came. A lot of what I did on this build were ideas I got from stuff here (mixed in with my old bad habits).

WF - I did notice that the rear of the fuse and rudder were the connected. That was an interesting choice, and I'll bet most people didn't even realize that it was opposite of a 'real' Corsair. I considered doing the gear like you did, but was concerned with such a short plane that I would have trouble landing without nosing over. So I wimped out and decided to go with standard profile type gear.

[Wild Fred]

yeah, thought it was a slick solution to rudder coupling. lotof carrier planes great 3d ones, except most have that big rudder on top. the hellcat worked good for me, and doing the aft fuse of corsair worked too. you can angle hingeline to remove some, but that looks weird. i don't think i ever nosed it over, gear angled forward some and cg was back pretty far.
fuse geat works well, but looks funny. the 747's called for fuse gear like that, i went tricycle on them though. looked much better, especially on the soul plane rolling on 22's!

[connolly115]

Do you have any pictures of that Hellcat?