Saturday, November 17, 2018

The Electric Edge 540 build log #1


There are not too many electric combat planes floating around. So I thought it would be fun to come up with an "E" plane for the 2019 Air to Air Combat series. To help incentivize development there will be a bonus for flying electric models in the series.

The first details are what equipment will get a plane to 75 mph and be powerful enough to maintain that speed through repetitive combat type maneuvers for 4 solid minutes? Most of the info online suggests that .25 IC engines are about 450-650 watts. Bob Mears has run an electric plane in Tuscon for the last several years and says that 2800mAh is the minimum capacity that is needed for the batteries. There are many factors that influence these combinations so there should be more than one acceptable set up.

I am going to start with a 700w 2836 size motor that is 2200kv. I am going to feed it a 1550mAh 6 cell battery. I know that above 2800mAh was mentioned as the min but I already have the 1550 6S packs. So instead of making unknown equipment purchases I am going with what I have in the shop for now. I also have a Castle Creations 75A ESC that may be over kill but will work for the maiden flight.

The after an educational conversation with Howard Williams of Warbird Series 1 fame, the weight of the electric equipment is the challenge to overcome. So I am going with a 450sq foam wing that will be removable from the fuse for later updates if needed. The fuse and tail section will follow the general moments and sizing of a Ringmaster. I found a 3 view drawing on the www and adapted it to fit the sizes needed. Next step is to decide on the motor mount.


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