The Excelsior, and beyond!

I've been interested in model aviation almost all my life! I've just never pursued it becase the cost of building enough aircraft to learn to fly seemed mor than I was willing to sacrifice. In May 1980 I picked up my first copy of RCM, and it fetured an artical by Chuck Cunningham called "RC design made easy." I've spent years dabbling with designing models that I thought would never fly. I Earned an associates Degree in CAD from ITT and in my spare time I've collected drawings of hundreds of aircraft, and studied flight theory, and done quite a few layouts. As a matter of fact My final project at ITT was an aircraft called the Gator, and I will soon converrt that to a dollar tree foam model. I've recently become disabled and now find myself with the time, resources, and the skills to learn to fly, and I'm usng my own design to train myself. The Excelsior!

It is a slow, stable flyer that sports what I call a KFM3 supermodified wing.  the outer 30% of the wing transitions into an under camber and a dog tooth that helps prevent tip stalls. It weighs in at 22 oz, and with a wing area  of 289 Sq" it has a wing loading of about 10 oz per sq ft. I've modified my power pod for spacific placement of a 1300 4S 20C Lypo and it ensures that it balances right off the building board. It also provides 3 degrees of much needed down thrust as the KFM3 is a high lift airfoil. I'm currently flying a TURNIGY 11/740 Kv motor on a 30 Amp ECS. It swings a 11 X 5.5 prop and only draws about 14 Amps. It has pleanty of power to pull me out of trouble should I need it. I've tried stalling it and it just gently noses over and moves on. I love it! The rudder and elevator are ample enough to give it good response and the ailerons are just enough to provide easy banking. It just cruises around on about half throttle,and climbs like crazy when you push the throttle forward. Hencce the name Excelsior (Ever Upward!) and when you cut the throttle. it only requires a little elevator input and sets it on a good glide slope. they say anyone can fly. getting it back on the ground in one piece is the hard part. I've nailed every landing with this one! As you can see in the first photo the canopy is intigrated into the cowling, but I've also provided it with an option for a bubble canopy that I think makes it look even nicer.

The battery /ECS connection is easily accessed through the access hatch at  thebottom of the fuselage, so you can just plug in and fly!

Plans for this design are currently available for download on my website Flyin Foam RC. It's so new I'm still not showing up in the search engines yet so you'll have to type it directly into the URL box.  I've never flown or hosted a website before this, but why stop now! Next up for flight testing is my $2 Tiger!

It's made from only two sheets of Adams foam board, and looks just fenominal with the decal set I've created for it. I use Photoshop to add color to my projects and this one is no exceotion. the canopy is now in color also. I have so many designs just waiting to be converted to Adams foam construction. Such as the one I started building today The Hawker Typhoon MK IB

Here's one for you Josh!

Barron Von Blender! I wil be producing  planes like the Gator, the BF 109 Zwilling, The Havok, The P51B "old Crow", and many more soon. All my designs will be available for download on my website. Fly'n Foam RC, and all will include a cover page, detailed instructions, and most with build options and decal sheets. Feel free to drop buy and see what I have in mind next. Once again thank you Flite test for the inspiration. Keep up the good work!

Download your excelsior for free here: Flyin Foam RC