Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
My latest design, a 2m sailplane. It was inspired by Tony Mellor's Alto saiplane, found here: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=11611
I wanted a glider with well-rounded capabilities that could handle a variety of wind conditions. We'll see if it succeeds in that regard, but I have a good feeling about this one. Even if it doesn't perform how I want, at least it's one good looking plane!

The Aeronaut weighs in at 491g (17.3 oz) with 6.8g/sq. ft. wing loading. Current power setup is a 1300mah 3s and 3ch. It should slope nicely and might be able to ride thermals pretty well too. Pod and boom fuselage, I used a fiberglass arrow shaft although carbon fiber would be ideal. I ended up using a full length wood spar in the wing, it was rather hot when I built it and the glue wasn't cooperating so I decided not the take any chances. The plans include a foam spar that should work fine for thermals and will reduce weight. For aerobatic sloping or higher winds I recommend at least a partial length solid spar, be it wood or carbon fiber or anything else for that matter. Stronger is never a bad thing with slopers!

I haven't had a chance to maiden it yet, I finished it less than half an hour before I'm writing this. Honestly I think she's almost too pretty to fly. She'll look even better with paint. Someday I'd love to rebuild this in balsa, foam almost doesn't do it justice.

IMG_20200328_140402.jpg


IMG_20200328_141100.jpg


Note that the wing covers the battery hatch slightly, I thought I'd point out that yes, it's supposed to be this way. This keeps the hatch closed closed reliably, and there's a bit of foam glued inside the fuselage that the hatch rests against so it doesn't disappear inside the plane. I've added a bit of packing tape to the hatch to aid in opening it, it's folded under the wing.

Plans are as of yet untested. Seeing as I will hopefully not be rebuilding this anytime soon it would be nice if a few people could build one as beta builders and help me flesh out any issues with the plans or the design in general. Construction should be fairly intuitive, the fuse is just a simple A-fold with a stylized nose. It should be possible to fly this as a 2ch, just add a bit extra dihedral.

Needed to complete (if building as 3ch):
x4 9g servos
X4 servo extension leads OR x2 servo extension leads + x1 Y-splitter
x1 3 or 4ch Rx

Build difficulty:
Beginner - Intermediate
 

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  • AeronautPlan.pdf
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Last edited:

mayan

Legendary member
My latest design, a 2m sailplane. It was more than loosely inspired by Tony Mellor's Alto saiplane, found here: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=11611
I wanted a glider with well-rounded capabilities that could handle a variety of wind conditions. We'll see if it succeeds in that regard, but I have a good feeling about this one. Even if it doesn't perform how I want, at least it's one good looking plane!

The Aeronaut weighs in at 491g (17.3 oz) with 6.8g/sq. ft. wing loading. Current power setup is a 1300mah 3s and 3ch. It should slope nicely and might be able to ride thermals pretty well too. Pod and boom fuselage, I used a fiberglass arrow shaft although carbon fiber would be ideal. I ended up using a full length wood spar in the wing, it was rather hot when I built it and the glue wasn't cooperating so I decided not the take any chances. The plans include a foam spar that should work fine for thermals and will reduce weight. For aerobatic sloping or higher winds I recommend at least a partial length solid spar, be it wood or carbon fiber or anything else for that matter. Stronger is never a bad thing with slopers!

I haven't had a chance to maiden it yet, I finished it less than half an hour before I'm writing this. Honestly I think she's almost too pretty to fly. She'll look even better with paint. Someday I'd love to rebuild this in balsa, foam almost doesn't do it justice.

View attachment 163662

View attachment 163663

Note that the wing covers the battery hatch slightly, I thought I'd point out that yes, it's supposed to be this way. This keeps the hatch closed closed reliably, and there's a bit of foam glued inside the fuselage that the hatch rests against so it doesn't disappear inside the plane. I've added a bit of packing tape to the hatch to aid in opening it, it's folded under the wing.

Plans are as of yet untested. Seeing as I will hopefully not be rebuilding this anytime soon it would be nice if a few people could build one as beta builders and help me flesh out any issues with the plans or the design in general. Construction should be fairly intuitive, the fuse is just a simple A-fold with a stylized nose. It should be possible to fly this as a 2ch, just add a bit extra dihedral.

Needed to complete (if building as 3ch):
x4 9g servos
X4 servo extension leads OR x2 servo extension leads + x1 Y-splitter
x1 3 or 4ch Rx

Build difficulty:
Intermediate
Look beautiful any maiden video?
 

ScratchBuildMast

Elite member
My latest design, a 2m sailplane. It was more than loosely inspired by Tony Mellor's Alto saiplane, found here: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=11611
I wanted a glider with well-rounded capabilities that could handle a variety of wind conditions. We'll see if it succeeds in that regard, but I have a good feeling about this one. Even if it doesn't perform how I want, at least it's one good looking plane!

The Aeronaut weighs in at 491g (17.3 oz) with 6.8g/sq. ft. wing loading. Current power setup is a 1300mah 3s and 3ch. It should slope nicely and might be able to ride thermals pretty well too. Pod and boom fuselage, I used a fiberglass arrow shaft although carbon fiber would be ideal. I ended up using a full length wood spar in the wing, it was rather hot when I built it and the glue wasn't cooperating so I decided not the take any chances. The plans include a foam spar that should work fine for thermals and will reduce weight. For aerobatic sloping or higher winds I recommend at least a partial length solid spar, be it wood or carbon fiber or anything else for that matter. Stronger is never a bad thing with slopers!

I haven't had a chance to maiden it yet, I finished it less than half an hour before I'm writing this. Honestly I think she's almost too pretty to fly. She'll look even better with paint. Someday I'd love to rebuild this in balsa, foam almost doesn't do it justice.

View attachment 163662

View attachment 163663

Note that the wing covers the battery hatch slightly, I thought I'd point out that yes, it's supposed to be this way. This keeps the hatch closed closed reliably, and there's a bit of foam glued inside the fuselage that the hatch rests against so it doesn't disappear inside the plane. I've added a bit of packing tape to the hatch to aid in opening it, it's folded under the wing.

Plans are as of yet untested. Seeing as I will hopefully not be rebuilding this anytime soon it would be nice if a few people could build one as beta builders and help me flesh out any issues with the plans or the design in general. Construction should be fairly intuitive, the fuse is just a simple A-fold with a stylized nose. It should be possible to fly this as a 2ch, just add a bit extra dihedral.

Needed to complete (if building as 3ch):
x4 9g servos
X4 servo extension leads OR x2 servo extension leads + x1 Y-splitter
x1 3 or 4ch Rx

Build difficulty:
Intermediate
Beautiful
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
I've had some spare time recently and I've been meaning to get out and fly, the problem is it's been raining all week. I'm enjoying the weather but it does make it a challenge to fly foam airplanes. Once it clears up I'll maiden it.
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Nice plane. Cut the outer panels off, and it looks just like my last balsa sloper which was a hoot to fly. Sunny and warm here in Reno, the weekend should be good for you if they let you go play outside
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
Nice plane. Cut the outer panels off, and it looks just like my last balsa sloper which was a hoot to fly. Sunny and warm here in Reno, the weekend should be good for you if they let you go play outside
That's what I was thinking, today is supposed to be the last of the rain for the week. We got a bit of a break earlier today that was plenty windy, only problem was it was blowing the wrong way.
 

synjin

Elite member
Did you maiden it and how long is the tailboom? Wow! there are questions that don't go together. I'm thinking of doing a glider as I was out at the field flying my 150% Bloody Navy Cat and everyone else was flying power gliders. So, glider/power glider.
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
Did you maiden it and how long is the tailboom? Wow! there are questions that don't go together. I'm thinking of doing a glider as I was out at the field flying my 150% Bloody Navy Cat and everyone else was flying power gliders. So, glider/power glider.
I took it to the mountains to maiden it but the wind was the wrong direction the entire time I was out there. Not sure exactly when the maiden will be as it's a little difficult to fly locally right now, my favorite hill was unfortunately owned by the state.
The tail boom is about 14" from the elevator to the fuselage, it extends about 4" inside the fuselage. I believe the length is marked on the plans.
I don't think it should be too hard to make it powered if you wanted, the nose has plenty of room for electronics and with some modification could take a firewall easily.
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
Is that a symmetrical airfoil and are those ailerons? Are those two wings in the pattern or is that one wing? Does the v-tail use two servoes or one? So many questions tonight.
It's an asymmetrical airfoil and one wing. 3ch rudder elevator ailerons. The V-tail runs off 2 servos in the fuselage, the pushrods run inside the hollow tail boom.
I don't mind the questions at all, ask away! Just know I'm going to bed so I won't be able to answer any more until tomorrow morning.
 

"Corpse"

Legendary member
My latest design, a 2m sailplane. It was more than loosely inspired by Tony Mellor's Alto saiplane, found here: https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=11611
I wanted a glider with well-rounded capabilities that could handle a variety of wind conditions. We'll see if it succeeds in that regard, but I have a good feeling about this one. Even if it doesn't perform how I want, at least it's one good looking plane!

The Aeronaut weighs in at 491g (17.3 oz) with 6.8g/sq. ft. wing loading. Current power setup is a 1300mah 3s and 3ch. It should slope nicely and might be able to ride thermals pretty well too. Pod and boom fuselage, I used a fiberglass arrow shaft although carbon fiber would be ideal. I ended up using a full length wood spar in the wing, it was rather hot when I built it and the glue wasn't cooperating so I decided not the take any chances. The plans include a foam spar that should work fine for thermals and will reduce weight. For aerobatic sloping or higher winds I recommend at least a partial length solid spar, be it wood or carbon fiber or anything else for that matter. Stronger is never a bad thing with slopers!

I haven't had a chance to maiden it yet, I finished it less than half an hour before I'm writing this. Honestly I think she's almost too pretty to fly. She'll look even better with paint. Someday I'd love to rebuild this in balsa, foam almost doesn't do it justice.

View attachment 163662

View attachment 163663

Note that the wing covers the battery hatch slightly, I thought I'd point out that yes, it's supposed to be this way. This keeps the hatch closed closed reliably, and there's a bit of foam glued inside the fuselage that the hatch rests against so it doesn't disappear inside the plane. I've added a bit of packing tape to the hatch to aid in opening it, it's folded under the wing.

Plans are as of yet untested. Seeing as I will hopefully not be rebuilding this anytime soon it would be nice if a few people could build one as beta builders and help me flesh out any issues with the plans or the design in general. Construction should be fairly intuitive, the fuse is just a simple A-fold with a stylized nose. It should be possible to fly this as a 2ch, just add a bit extra dihedral.

Needed to complete (if building as 3ch):
x4 9g servos
X4 servo extension leads OR x2 servo extension leads + x1 Y-splitter
x1 3 or 4ch Rx

Build difficulty:
Intermediate
I gotta hand it to you, your plans are probably the best foamboard plans I've seen yet. It makes everything look so simple and easy, and I love the start page too! Nice job!
 

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
@synjin I don't remember if I said this in the main post or not but for slope soaring I highly recommend adding a wooden spar inside the wing. Just a 3/8" dowel is usually fine, but sloping puts incredible stress on the wing and a foam spar doesn't hold up for long.
 

synjin

Elite member
CBA, well I was thinking powered as I don't know where folks might slope around here. I live on the edge of the Chugach mountain range, but for the most part it's wooded pretty far up. There is bluff area down by the Cook Inlet, but that's also right next to the airport...the airport that's currently the busiest in the US. I'll find some place to soar.

I was going to print the plans last night, but both of the applications that I opened them in thought that they were the size of US letter paper. I messed with them in another program and did pull the wings out to 1m each, but that made your measurement scale on the plans 25% larger than it should have been.

Do you have a picture of the underside of your wing?
 
Last edited:

Crawford Bros. Aeroplanes

Legendary member
CBA, well I was thinking powered as I don't know where folks might slope around here. I live on the edge of the Chugach mountain range, but for the most part it's wooded pretty far up. There is bluff area down by the Cook Inlet, but that's also right next to the airport...the airport that's currently the busiest in the US. I'll find some place to soar.

I was going to print the plans last night, but both of the applications that I opened them in thought that they were the size of US letter paper. I messed with them in another program and did pull the wings out to 1m each, but that made your measurement scale on the plans 25% larger than it should have been.

Do you have a picture of the underside of your wing?
IMG_20200514_220727.jpg

It's a standard ft-style wing, I'd say it's almost identical to the simple soarer. The scaling may possibly be an issue with the plans themselves, I thought I had it right but it's possible I did something wrong. Let me know if you're still having issues and I'll take a look, these are the first plans I've ever made.
The wingspan also isn't 2m exactly, that's a competition class for gliders that are about in the 2m range. The total wingspan is 60," but to scale the plans right I'd use the scale on the first page.
 

synjin

Elite member
All right, I have all the parts cut and ready to go. Is there dihedral or polyhedral in the wing? Did you set up the tail as a v-tail (programming wise)? At this point I’m trying to decide between an 1806 or 1407 motor. Either way I was just going to use a 900maH 2S as both the motors are pretty high Kv.