Baby Blender Biplane

fliteadmin

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The Blender RC plane had a baby!... Wait, no... two babies! The Blender had twins!

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We review the smaller scratch built version of the original Blender biplane, the Baby Blender. Designed with both a swappable fuselage and a conventional (non-swappable) design!

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Adding to the swappable fuselage series we created a scratch built biplane replicating a smaller version of the Blender Biplane.

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The swappable fuselage is hidden inside of the baby Blender's airframe.

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The dollar tree foam plane is also made of poster board as well.

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The conventional airframe is designed with a fixed fuselage and is just slightly lighter than the swappable.

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The big difference with this scratch built biplane design is that it features an actual curved top, flat bottom Airfoil!

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Thanks to FliteTest.com author ExAir and his Armin Airfoil tutorial, we were inspired to try out his design and make our baby Blender with these Airfoils.


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Biplanes with airfoils have an incredible amount of lift!

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It was a bit of an accident that the baby Blender handles as well as it does. With short coupled airplanes, typically they have a tendency to drop a wing or have stall-spins. But the baby Blender handles great!

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Josh Scott thinks this scratch built flys a lot like the Apprentice.

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The conventional airfoil really makes this scratch built foamboard RC plane fly well. It's very forgiving and though it's a bit more advanced to build, it's a fun plane to fly as a beginner, intermediate and pro.

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Stay tuned for the build episode of this RC foamboard plane!
 

earthsciteach

Moderator
Moderator
This is really a fantastic application of the swappable fuselage! I am very impressed with the direction you are taking these. I see one of these in my future.

Favorite quotes from the video:

Josh B -"I'm going to keep pulling back on my stick."

Josh B -"I think this should be called the Happy Accident."

Somehow I can't help but feel the first action is related to the latter statement... :D
 

SteveOBHave

Senior Member
Love it - I've always been taken by biplanes, actually I'm really keen to see the build vid too since the dual aileron setup has always been the thing stopping me from building one.
 

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
Love it - I've always been taken by biplanes, actually I'm really keen to see the build vid too since the dual aileron setup has always been the thing stopping me from building one.

Check out the Mikey's RC FPV V3 build - they show you how to make nice dual ailerons there.
 

Ak Flyer

Fly the wings off
Mentor
Now we're talking. I've not been a huge fan of the early swappables but I do like the biplane.
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
Yeah- I kinda made promise not to buy anymore planes for a little while but this one may just be too tempting to pass on...
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
Yeah- I kinda made promise not to buy anymore planes for a little while but this one may just be too tempting to pass on...


Buy one, build one, repeat. My wife isn't thrilled with my quickly growing collection, but she doesn't seem to mind at all when I build them since they're ultra-cheap to make. A "new" plane for under $10 (foam, 2 servos, pushrods, and paint, and re-using the fuselage/electronics)? How could she possibly argue? Besides, it keeps me home and out of the bars. :rolleyes:
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
hahaha- my promise was made to myself ;)
I just purchased a PZ Corsair and have so much other stuff... I have a coroplast f-22 and three more airframes, I liked it so much I cut out a foam one, yeah, just too much stuff for now, maybe get a little building done this winter but that little blender plane is going to get built ;)
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
I'll probably end up with a lot of build-time over winter as well. Although I just ordered a set of skis for the Super Cub, and it'd be a shame to not use 'em...! How are winters in the SLC/Provo area? We're hoping to move to the St George area in the next year or two - I won't miss the snow.
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
What's going to bring you to St George?

We get snow here but usually not too bad. We can generally fly year round, our winter field is a local park with a big paved parking lot. St. George would be cool. There is an RC Club that has a great field there. They do a spring fly in and a fall warbird event. The warbird event is next weekend but I won't be able to go this time around.
Check them out: http://remoterc.com/
 

Joker 53150

Mmmmmmm, balsa.
Mentor
I notice a distince lack of plane-eating-trees, which is nice. Looks like a big-time operation out there!

We've been looking to relocate away from the Great White North for a while. Some place warm, but not humid (we considered Florida until we spent time there in the summer). Low crime, good outdoor activities, etc. We went to St George each of the past two summers, and although it was over 100 degrees it was still more comfortable than Wisconsin at 90. Winters are mild, or by comparison non-existent. There is a great abundance of rock climbing for me between St George, Vegas, and numerous points inbetween, Moab becomes a weekend get-away for us, Zion and Bryce Canyon would be in our back yard, etc. So hopefully within the next 1-2 years I finish renovating the current place, sell it, and find something in St George before the property values out there pick up again.
 
armin wing bipe

This is really a fantastic application of the swappable fuselage! I am very impressed with the direction you are taking these. I see one of these in my future.

Favorite quotes from the video:

Josh B -"I'm going to keep pulling back on my stick."

Josh B -"I think this should be called the Happy Accident."

Somehow I can't help but feel the first action is related to the latter statement... :D

Flew my armin wing bipe today and decided to build it better .Am excited to get your spec's as mine was tail heavy.also try Ed's noob tube with 7in wing and 2 in controls it's a blast
 

jetpackninja

More combat please...
Mentor
Flew my armin wing bipe today and decided to build it better .Am excited to get your spec's as mine was tail heavy.also try Ed's noob tube with 7in wing and 2 in controls it's a blast

What? No pictures? Was it your own design or does Ed have some bipe designs out there?