DH VAMPIRE

For those with keen eye's!! The model is not bolted together for the pics, so the gap's you notice on the fitment of wings and tailplane will be eliminated once they are tightened

Looks great Pete. Can't remember if this has been discussed but what's the colour scheme going to be? David? Do you have lighting for it already? I had some new 10W Strobe LED's turn up the other day for the Hawk.... I turned them on, appreciated them, turned them off and continued to appreciate them for at least a further 15mins! They're brighter than the genuine strobe units I had. braincube systems seems to be great.

Dave asked

what's the colour scheme going to be?

The Model is based on one of the prototypes which resides in the Midland Air Museum in Coventry, see:

www.midlandairmuseum.co.uk/explore.php

The full-size, RAL-G, in the third picture down. I understand that the suffix G was applied to any prototype which was on the secret list and required a 24 hr armed guard.

I collected the electric disc brakes while in Germany last weekend, I am also going for electric actuation as I am completely fed up with the unreliability of the Spring Air's on the Boomerang. They always work perfectly in the workshop but develop leaks the moment they arrive at Cashmoor!

It's getting exciting thanks to Pete.

David

Looks like another top quality build Pete. Look forward to seeing this perform at cashmoor alongside the Panther and maybe the Hawk one day
JRI is going to have to step up with a scale Jet ??

Also, looking forward to seeing and getting this through the lens! By the way, there's another Airworld Hawk on Bmfa RTF if anyone wants to duo?

The air brake's on the vampire deploy fully at 90 degrees to the wing as shown in picture 6!
The way that they were constructed and hinged as per the drawings gave me great concern to the overall strength as they would be deployed at great speed.
Even the designer lost his 25% scale vampire due to the break up of a airbrake in flight.
So after a lot of thought and three different designs i have gone with a 2.5 mm steel full length hinge pin running inside a bearing tube which in turn is bonded to a lite ply air brake bottom instead of balsa.For the top surface of the air brake i have used 1.5 mm f/ glass sheet which is also bonded to the lite ply bottom and bearing tube, this results in a mega strong air brake installation .

Thanks for that Pete, it's been worrying me too. As I understand it Kerry Sterner's accident was the failure of one air brake which was torn off due to being deployed at high speed causing an extreme yaw which couldn't be overcome with rudder and the model spun in. Had he been quick enough to realise what had happened and closed the remaining brake he would probably have saved it.
I was originally intending to drive the air brakes with retract servos, so they'd be either in or out. Now using proportional control will be more sensible. Also some mixing to prevent full air brake deployment at more than half throttle would also be a worthwhile precaution.

I have connected the two air intakes with a rolled tube made of thin fibre glass sheet and a central 60mm hole cut. There was a great need to get the turbine as far forward as i could to aid the c of g so the starter motor for the turbine is completely inside the ducting. Once the fod guard arrives i wiil open the hole with a dremel to accommodate it.

Thrust pipe cut to length and trial fit

Couple more