B-58 Hustler - Quad 70mm EDF Foamboard Beast

Mid7night

Jetman
Mentor
This was my "quarantine build" in early 2020, and I'm so happy with how it came out! It's big, about 7ft long and 4ft span, but it actually is a fairly simple build. The fuselage is simplified, square cross section, but its presence in the air is undiminished. :D

Instead of sitting on the plans 'til they're "perfect" (which never happens), I figure I'll get this out to you all, because I'm already getting asked about them. :p

The plans are fairly simple, but I had to make some in-situ modifications to incorporate the landing gear, but I tried to document what I did in pictures. Feel free to ask questions here if you actually attempt this build. ;)

This build ended up being just about 13.5lbs AUW with batteries and everything, and pushed just over 7lbs of static thrust. Even with that fairly low thrust/weight ratio, it still boogied in the air!

It's powered by four 70mm EDFs, and I used my trusty FMS 12-blade 4S units. They are actually the last four leftover EDFs from my Valkyrie project years ago. I also recycled the landing gear from the Valkyrie. I used Power-UP 100A ESCs because they're cheap and seem to perform well, and I like more headroom on my ESCs, especially for EDFs. Batteries are 4S, usually running two 5000mAh packs, but any similar sized packs will do.

Alright, enough jabber; here's the build!

Note: In the ZIP file for plans, I've just included the thrust-tube layout from my F-18, since the B-58 uses the same thrust tube. It may need a little trimming.

Basic nose and fuselage buildup:
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Landing gear layout and internal structure:
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More wing internal details:
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Some close-ups of the latch I designed and 3D-printed for the hatches:
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Maiden day!
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This was the extent of the damage from first flight. Easily repairable. I inserted some 2x4 sections to bolster the paint-stick mounts, and screwed the retracts back in with 1.5" drywall screws. :D
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After repairing the mains I decided it was alright to do some paint, and took it out for another flight the next weekend:
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F106DeltaDart

Elite member
Excellent work!! Hoping to get around to building one soon as well. I have a fiberglass fuselage for a quad 70mm B-58 on the shelf, just need to start working on the wing!
 

mrjdstewart

Legendary member
so Ben ( @Mid7night ), when you get bored with it, how about you give it to me? :unsure:

i have a Lt. Col at my field that flew these and to this day says it was the funnest thing he ever got his hands on. he was the first to trust me to fly and remains a huge influence on my flying. he is unfortunately 80+ yrs old and currently undergoing chemo for cancer. nothing would make him happier than this.

just saying, incase you need room in your house for another build. i would more than gladly drive out to pick up. :)

let me know. ;)

me :cool:
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
Another video of the Hustler flying. This time with the FT Aura5 Lite onboard! It's really nice!


sooo.

Here I am asking another quad brain question about fixed wing... Wouldn't the board be even more effective if it were set on the CG line and not have to go nuts compensating for the longer lever arm of the nose from CG?
 

Mid7night

Jetman
Mentor
sooo.

Here I am asking another quad brain question about fixed wing... Wouldn't the board be even more effective if it were set on the CG line and not have to go nuts compensating for the longer lever arm of the nose from CG?

Possibly, but not because of any kind of distance offset, at least not due to the distance itself ... Rotational velocity and acceleration are the same everywhere on an aircraft, theoretically speaking, so technically the gyro can be placed anywhere and feel the same rotational inertias and react to them accordingly. However, if the gyro is placed on something long and flexible, then there could be a 'lag' due to structural bending from the center of mass out to where the gyro is fixed. So when the center-mass rotates, everything connected to it flexes and thus doesn't rotate at the same time, so the gyro response would be delayed.

In this case though, the masses are all low enough, and the nose-fuselage section is quite rigid, so there isn't any appreciable lag due to structural flex. There could be some noise from vibration, but given how well the Aura responds I would assume there is some level of filtering going on.

When it DOES definitely matter is if you have a an IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit) that is also measuring LINEAR accelerations in the 3 principle axes. If the IMU is way out in front of the CG and the plane pitches up, the center of mass won't TRANSLATE immediately, even though it ROTATES, however the nose WILL translate rapidly vertically while also rotating. This would definitely result in a discrepancy in the processed response from the IMU/Gyro. With that kind of sensor and flight controls you want the IMU/Gyro on the CG. Even so though, the more advanced ones have the ability to program in an offset from the CG, so that it can virtually 'transform' its position mathematically to account for the offset.
 

PsyBorg

Wake up! Time to fly!
So large changes in pitch wont make it go wonky like if for some reason you decided to go straight vertical quickly or a situation like a stall happens and over shoots the gyros before they can actualize what was going on and potentially hinder not aid a recovery.

I ask this not because of normal flight but in the event of something not normal and it freaking out making real control impossible. IE a quad FC having a desync on one motor and just rolling over playing dead because the gyros cant recover. Things like how this would react in bad moments can be as important or more important then normal operations.
 

PoorManRC

Master member
Ben.... NOTHING silly about your designs!! This might be one of the best! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
It just looks so good - and FLIES well too!! You've already convinced me earlier, to wait until I can get 12 blade EDFs. Sounds SO much better than any 6 blade.

And I may have to save up for at least two Aura Boards. Looks like that will do a great job of compensating for my damaged SAUSAGE Fingers!! 😜
 

hifinsword

Junior Member
You do great work Ben. I wish I had the time to delve into some of your builds. I've used the Spektrum AR636, AR7350, Hobby Eagle A3 Super II and 3 different Lemon-Rx stabs. I rarely pay attention to where they are placed with respect to the CG. They don't have to be placed on the CG in order to get good stabilization. By far the AR636 has been the best ANGLE stab for self-leveling. The Lemons are just as good at RATE stab and much cheaper than the Spektrums. And you can put a Lemon 10Ch Rx (non-stab Rx) in there and program the AR636 for higher channels to take advantage of a higher channel count, but they are no longer being made. I'm currently working on trying to get my 8.5lb SR-71 (empty weight) w/twin Freewing 12-Blade 70mm EDFs airborne with 6lbs thrust. It's going on a diet. I think maybe my airfoil isn't quite right? I should've left the balsa covering off.
 

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