FT EZ Airbus A319 Design/Brainstorm

[DZFlyer]

Hello everyone,
After watching many videos of RC Airplanes, I found a lot of really awesome airliner models, some of which were built using foam. For some reason, I began building up a strong desire to design a remote-controlled micro-scale airliner that could be built out of foam board. After doing a bit of research, I found that most foam models of jets or passenger aircraft are built on a really large scale (with the exception of super light indoor flyers like DMFV Team's Concorde and Micro 777 but I am not on that level). In addition, some of my design thoughts are a bit problematic:

• I really want the plane to have propellers that are actually INSIDE the engine nacelle (unlike all of the cheap RC airliners on Amazon)
• I want it to be powered off of the FT EZ Power Pack v.2 so it is cheap and accessible to build

This causes a whole bunch of possible problems and flaws in my plan that include but are not limited to (🙃):

• Nacelle size will be dictated by the size of the propeller in the EZ Pack (the size is unknown to me for now)
• If I want to keep the airplane somewhat scale, then because nacelle size dictates the size of the rest of the airplane, the airplane would be pretty long (the main reason I chose a really short airplane to design)
• The weight would be hard to keep in the flyable range of the EZ Pack due to possible large size (I was advised to keep the weight in the 30-45 grams range by @L Edge (Thanks!))
• Thrust could be blocked in part by the nacelles and much-needed power would be lost

So, addressing some but not all of the problems, I plan to design the airplane by adapting papercraft plans and peeling the paper off of most of the foam used in the build. I found a simple Lufthansa A319 papercraft on YouTube that doesn't have glue tabs and is not overly detailed (both of these things are good for my model because the lack of glue tabs makes the plans easier to adjust for my purpose and paper nose would be hard to reproduce in foam if it has too many curves and details). I will probably go with a traditional FliteTest-style foldover wing, but remove the inside (and possibly outside) facing paper. If anyone has any tips, and/or suggestions, or knows the size of the EZ Pack v.2 propellers , I'll be happy to hear it. Otherwise, I will try to keep this thread updated if/when I follow through with this project.

 

[DZFlyer]

Delaying this project slightly...
I decided to try designing something simpler for the EZ Pack first to get a feel for designing. I downloaded Inkscape and am currently designing an EZ Twin Otter with a box-style fuselage. I will post updates on a different thread (will link to here when I make that one) and will try to put out free plans.

 

[L Edge]

Your thinking about just trying to designing a simple plane is the best to do. You will quickly learn what you can do and what not. Here is my latest with a screw in the left wing to make it fly straight.

 

[Piotrsko]

A319 has tiny inlets compaired with GE high bypass stuff used by Boeing. So either really big build size, or do something else with the props. 4 blades can be smaller, but not as small as a multi blade impeller in a tube. Could build a 737 max, make minor changes to the plane and call it a stand far off scale 319..... most people won't know the difference and it probably wouldn't fly different. Do need to appropriate color the rudder to what airline flys them exclusive

 

[DZFlyer]

A319 has tiny inlets compaired with GE high bypass stuff used by Boeing. So either really big build size, or do something else with the props. 4 blades can be smaller, but not as small as a multi blade impeller in a tube. Could build a 737 max, make minor changes to the plane and call it a stand far off scale 319..... most people won't know the difference and it probably wouldn't fly different. Do need to appropriate color the rudder to what airline flys them exclusive

I tried to choose the airplane that had the biggest engines compared to its length so that the build would be relatively small... I was already considering swapping to a 737 but we'll see. Plus, there are a lot more papercraft resources for the 737 in different versions. Thanks for the advice!

 

[DZFlyer]

Your thinking about just trying to designing a simple plane is the best to do. You will quickly learn what you can do and what not. Here is my latest with a screw in the left wing to make it fly straight.

View attachment 247058

It looks like an SR71 Blackbird (sorry to everyone I just offended if I'm wrong). Looks great! How does it fly?

 

[DZFlyer]

*Update*
Hi y'all,
I got my EZ Power Pack v.2 today! Looks great and I am really excited to get started with it. One thing I did notice is that the propellers are quite big (2 inches in diameter), meaning I will either have to violate one condition (the propeller has to be inside the engine nacelle) due to the large size the airplane would end up being, or stray away from scale. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile, my EZ Twin Otter is coming along well, and I hope to finish the plans soon and get it tested.

 

[DZFlyer]

*Update*
Hi y'all,
I got my EZ Power Pack v.2 today! Looks great and I am really excited to get started with it. One thing I did notice is that the propellers are quite big (2 inches in diameter), meaning I will either have to violate one condition (the propeller has to be inside the engine nacelle) due to the large size the airplane would end up being, or stray away from scale. Anyway, I'll see what I can do. Meanwhile, my EZ Twin Otter is coming along well, and I hope to finish the plans soon and get it tested.

Further to that point, I scaled some a318 (the shortest airplane I could find) side profile drawings to have two-inch nacelles and came up with a length of 25 inches. 😐 That is 4 inches longer than my Tiny Tutor, which means that the airplane would be waaaaaay too big for the EZ Power Pack. I'm thinking of trying to make a profile-style airliner with a pusher configuration like @Rasterize's Boeing 747 and trying to design skins for it. I kinda like the new WestJet livery on the 737, so maybe I'll go that way. Or, I could try getting a multi-blade impeller in place of the large propeller to decrease the size (as per @Piotrsko's advice) On a more positive note, the propellers are perfectly scale for my EZ Twin Otter design so I'm happy about that.

 

[L Edge]

It looks like an SR71 Blackbird (sorry to everyone I just offended if I'm wrong). Looks great! How does it fly?

Due to winter settling in(cold temps and wind) have not been able to explore. If I can find a suitable day to launch, will do.