FTFC´18 WWII Lippisch P13a designed by Dr. Looping Looie

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
Allright, after a little more testing, I can defenitly say that the stuff with super stability and self-leveling is kindof true. First, I tested out some aerobatics. It does roll pretty well and fast, especially on high rates, you can pretty much do two rolls in one second. But the slower you roll it, the more it gets into a berral roll. Loopings are also doable, but you need to keep your airspeed up, because it doesnt like the part where its inverted. It really doesnt like inverted overall, which is interesting, because it kinda fits to the self-leveling thing. However, I havnt tested if it really does self-leveling without control input. But I think it has the characteristics of a great beginner jet: not too fast, no stalling, great visibility and easy to handle on low rates. And it is controllable at any elevator position.

Next thing: at the beginning, I build little test glider out of paper, which performed really nice landings. So what I did was switching to high rates, flying high up and cutting throttle while pulling the elevator all the way back. And what it did was similar to the gliders or the elevator mode from the FT Long EZ video, If anyone remembers. But the coolest part was that it was still fully controllable! And I could easily come back to normal flying instantly by applying throttle. I didnt try to land it like this, but I might try soon.
And the prop is high enough over the ground to allow ground take-off, which Im going to try tomorrow. The prop ground clearence is exactly the same as on the UMX Aero Commander.
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Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
Specs:
Lengh: 59 cm/23.2in
Wingspan: 53cm/20.8in
Wingspan of original: 6meters, which leads us to a scale of 1:11.3
Top speed of the original was calculated to 1650 kilometers per hour, which is a little over 1000 mp/h
If we say that the original had a speed range of 500 kp/h to 1650 kp/h, we can calculate that our model needs to fly between 44 kp/h and 143 kp/h (27mp/h to 88 mp/h) to have a scale speed, and I think its defenitly somewhere in between those speeds.
Its weight with 3s 600 battery is about 350 gramms, which gives you a flighttime of seven minutes.
 

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
You make me want to build one! Hopefully I will find time to cut one on the hot wire cutter, it would fit the rotary cutter that I want to built quite well.
Do you want to cut foamboard with the cutter or make it out of another foam material? Cutting it out of one solid block of foam will make it more tough, but make shure to use light foam, because its really easy in the tailheavy side.
 

Fluburtur

Cardboard Boy
Yeah I would cut it out of a slab of foam so it can have a good airfoil, it does look like the balance would be a bit tricky.
 

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
Two more videos! Make sure to put the volume loud, because its very quiet and Im also talking a little bit. Some stuff at high altitude is also hard to see. Enjoy!
I especially like the ground take-off ability, the retractable landing skid will make it even cooler, and with the rudder, it can even steer at some surfaces!
This thing also seems to be very attraktive to birds, it was surrounded by them all the time and you can also see them in the video.
 

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
Oh yeah! The more I fly this, the more I love it! Some more testing was sucsessful:
Wind testing: it performed extreamely well in windy weather with gusts up to 15mp/h.
Full scale airfield testing: I had a ton of fun doing take-offs and landings with the Lippisch and the Aero Commander on the full scale runway.
FPV testing: It works and delivers nice footage.
Paint: I made a quick paint job and it looks awesome:
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Real life comparison:
lippisch_p_13a_by_tr4br-d3i9ift.jpg

I hope I can record some fight videos soon, it looks truely amazing in the air.
 

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
I would love coming to Ohio, but sadly Im a 16 year old living in Germany, so its hard for me to get there. But If I ever have the chance, I will tell you.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I still want to try this as an edf as per your original design, however, I am interested to put in an F-pack if my re-ESC endeavor fails.
 

Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
I still want to try this as an edf as per your original design, however, I am interested to put in an F-pack if my re-ESC endeavor fails.
Go for it! How is your build going so far?


I finally got the landing skid to work:
And I put in a new pilot. Hes a LEGO Technic figure and fits in perfectly. One hand on the stick, other hand on the throttle, foots on rudder pedals. Hes only missing a uniform.
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Next thing to do is re-activate the rudder and install a bomb drop.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
The build was nearly done, but the ESC failure put me out.
I'll share pics this weekend. (Kiddo birthday will require a full clean of my normal work zone.
 
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Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
I Just made it six channel!
I added the bomb drop which drops each bomb individually:
IMAG0132.jpg


And check out this ground handling. It almost turns on its center without even having wheels:
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
30mm fail... I think I will put in a 3" propped motor and see.
I've been a bit distracted, but this plane has been eyeing me from my plane pile for a while now. I managed to get a 12a ESC working and gave this a go. The thrust felt weak.
Here's the results, (maybe not a 2S800 mAh battery. Nose busted, but is fixable. and I busted the no upper nose a bit. It's nothing a large bit of tape can't fix.

Did you ever revise/update the first post with pics, The specs, plans, video link of flight? It would be helpful for folks finding this plane.
 
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Dr. Looping Looie

Elite member
300mm fail... I think I will put in a 3" propped motor and see.
I've been a bit distracted, but this plane has been eyeing me from my plane pile for a while now. I managed to get a 12a ESC working and gave this a go. The thrust felt weak.
Here's the results, (maybe not a 2S800 mAh battery. Nose busted, but is fixable. and I busted the no upper nose a bit. It's nothing a large bit of tape can't fix.

Did you ever revise/update the first post with pics, The specs, plans, video link of flight? It would be helpful for folks finding this plane.
Your looking tailheavy. From mine I know that battery placement is very hard with an EDF. Check out CG calc on the Internet, it worked for mine.
But your smaller scale could really influence flight caracteristics badly.
I would say go with prop.
Im going to do a rebuild soon with mine when I know how to draw plans.
 

rockyboy

Skill Collector
Mentor
300mm fail... I think I will put in a 3" propped motor and see.
I've been a bit distracted, but this plane has been eyeing me from my plane pile for a while now. I managed to get a 12a ESC working and gave this a go. The thrust felt weak.
Here's the results, (maybe not a 2S800 mAh battery. Nose busted, but is fixable. and I busted the no upper nose a bit. It's nothing a large bit of tape can't fix.

Did you ever revise/update the first post with pics, The specs, plans, video link of flight? It would be helpful for folks finding this plane.

"When a man walks down the street in that hat, people know he's not afraid of anything!" :p
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Your looking tailheavy. From mine I know that battery placement is very hard with an EDF. Check out CG calc on the Internet, it worked for mine.
But your smaller scale could really influence flight caracteristics badly.
I would say go with prop.
I'm going to do a rebuild soon with mine when I know how to draw plans.
PM me with straight overhead pics and with measurements I can have you a plan set in a few days...
I was going to put a motor from my spruce gosling project in. Light, fast and 400g of thrust should do it.
Thanks. I will check the CG. and get some fastening mechanism for the battery. I had a moment of a gentle flutter and I want more.