Mini fun-fighter Spitfire

DazDaMan

Elite member
So, I quite often fly mini and micro-sized warbirds - I'm often found flying my little UMX Airnox Spitfire in the field behind my house.

Although I like the Eachine warbirds - and I did have most of the range in the collection until I sold them - I really dislike paying £100+ for them!!

The solution? Build my own. That way, if I break one, it's not going to bankrupt me too much.

That's where this one comes in. It's not quite a micro, being about 23ins wingspan, so that puts it firmly in the "mini" corner of the field.

Construction is completely from 5mm A3 foam sheet, with a plywood firewall. As it currently sits, the model weighs in at around 60g empty. The wing has been built using a KFM2 profile for speed and ease of construction, but I am considering building further prototypes with undercambered or flat-bottomed wings.

This one was originally meant to fly, but I thought I would just complete it as a non-flying prototype to see how it might look (and also so I can hang it from my office ceiling!) I'm also looking at improving the appearance of it by making a curved decking for the upper fuselage so as to make an earlier-model Spitfire.

If it works, I have ideas for other mini warbirds, such as the Me109, Mustang, Hurricane, P-40 and Zero....!
 

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Hyperdrive

Member
So, I quite often fly mini and micro-sized warbirds - I'm often found flying my little UMX Airnox Spitfire in the field behind my house.

Although I like the Eachine warbirds - and I did have most of the range in the collection until I sold them - I really dislike paying £100+ for them!!

The solution? Build my own. That way, if I break one, it's not going to bankrupt me too much.

That's where this one comes in. It's not quite a micro, being about 23ins wingspan, so that puts it firmly in the "mini" corner of the field.

Construction is completely from 5mm A3 foam sheet, with a plywood firewall. As it currently sits, the model weighs in at around 60g empty. The wing has been built using a KFM2 profile for speed and ease of construction, but I am considering building further prototypes with undercambered or flat-bottomed wings.

This one was originally meant to fly, but I thought I would just complete it as a non-flying prototype to see how it might look (and also so I can hang it from my office ceiling!) I'm also looking at improving the appearance of it by making a curved decking for the upper fuselage so as to make an earlier-model Spitfire.

If it works, I have ideas for other mini warbirds, such as the Me109, Mustang, Hurricane, P-40 and Zero....!
Very good!

To make it even better you could make it compatible with the FT Power Pod.

Maybe submit as a resource too, I'm sure a lot of people would make it and enjoy crashing it.
 

DazDaMan

Elite member
So, made great progress with the second prototype mini Spitfire. This one has slightly less dihedral than the first, but hopefully that won't be too much of an issue when it comes to flying.

Strangely, despite being built using the same materials and processes, the second one is a few grams LIGHTER than the first!
 

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Hyperdrive

Member
So, made great progress with the second prototype mini Spitfire. This one has slightly less dihedral than the first, but hopefully that won't be too much of an issue when it comes to flying.

Strangely, despite being built using the same materials and processes, the second one is a few grams LIGHTER than the first!
Sometimes different amounts of hot glue can fluctuate the weight in small ways, but I don't think it causes to much of a difference.
 

DazDaMan

Elite member
Yeah, I did wonder about that, as I had to re-glue the wings of the first one.

One the subject of wings, I'm not sure about the dihedral angle on the second one. Looking at it from behind, they look a bit flat, especially compared to the first one.