A Helicopter!!

buzzbomb

I know nothing!
Why has no one, that I've seen built one out of foamboard? Granted our passion and love is fixed wings, but that'd be a big "Whoot!"

A foamboard Cobra wouldn't be hard to fabricate. One would have to buy the the rotor, and the linkages would be tough. But It's RC. Surely there are some cheap ways to make that work.

Tell me what I'm missing. Why hasn't anyone done it?
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Why has no one, that I've seen built one out of foamboard? Granted our passion and love is fixed wings, but that'd be a big "Whoot!"

A foamboard Cobra wouldn't be hard to fabricate. One would have to buy the the rotor, and the linkages would be tough. But It's RC. Surely there are some cheap ways to make that work.

Tell me what I'm missing. Why hasn't anyone done it?
My passion is mainly in scale helis, so I'll give my thoughts. The main issue here is that the mechanics, the "guts" of the helicopter would have to be from something a normal RC helicopter. And to carry the weight of a foamboard fuselage, it would probably have to be around 450 size. I think there was even someone on the FT Fans facebook page who made a Huey fuselage a while back out of foamboard.

The main issue is simply cost. Unless you get an extraordinary deal on finding a heli. the cost of the mechanics/servos/motor/esc isn't cheap. Even using a clone heli with bangood parts, a 450 heli is probably at least $300. And if you have decided to spend that kind of money, most would buy a nice fiberglass fuselage or scratchbuild one out of balsa and traditional materials. That's not to say it can't be done, but it makes it pretty rare.

I could see building a DTFB fuselage for some of those big cheap coaxial choppers. A KA-52 fuselage would look pretty cool on those, and the prices are MUCH lower. They would be restricted to indoor flight or VERY low wind though.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
I would think anything with any power would shread foamboard with the down forces produced. After all we are not swinging 6-10 inch props on a heli
 

F106DeltaDart

Elite member
I would think anything with any power would shread foamboard with the down forces produced. After all we are not swinging 6-10 inch props on a heli
As long as the fuselage had some basic support structure, I think it would be Ok. Plenty of scale fuselages were made of vacuformed plastic, all the way up to the 500 size. And in most cases, that thin vacuformed plastic is weaker than foamboard. I could see the horizontal stabilizers needing some reinforcement, but otherwise it should be fine.

The other thing to consider is that downwash is much less closer to the center of the disk, since the inboard sections of the blades are moving at a slower velocity. Most of your downwash is from the tips of the blades.
 

makattack

Winter is coming
Moderator
Mentor
It kind of looks like a foamboard Cobra, but I saw a guy setting up this heli at one of the fields I fly at (Medfield, MA) -- I believe it's a fiberglass body (not painted since he was taking it out for a test flight before making it purdy).

cobra.jpg
 

Hondacr513

New member
If you want something that just looks like a Heli, you could always add electronics to something like this chinook glider.
 

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buzzbomb

I know nothing!
If you want something that just looks like a Heli, you could always add electronics to something like this chinook glider.
That is one cool glider! I was actually thinking a real RC helicopter though, and through this thread I've learned why it's not really doable. However... Peter Stripol experimented with some autogyro designs. What you've got there is just loaded with ideas. :unsure: