Built it. Flew it. Want to build another!
FMS 70mm EDF, Talon 90 ESC, 4S 3300mAh pack
I came in at 3.5lb, this being my second FT build ever, I used a lb of glue lol
Maiden
That one was a speed build kit. Next one will be FT water resistant as well. This thing sucked a lb of snow up inside during maidens. I ran up the EDF at home a few hours later and it left a huge puddle in it's wake lolNice! What foam did you use?
X-29 Photo
Here's a NASA photo during the third flight taken from the chase T-38 inverted above the X-29. The black marks on the X-29's right wing are from wires for a flight deflection measuring system that measured how the wing bent and twisted in flight. The X-29 had graphite epoxy composite wing covers which were designed to make the wing twist leading edge down when it bent. This prevented the wing from being torn off the fuselage at high speeds which is called divergence. Divergence is the reason that we haven't built many aircraft with forward swept wings before the X-29.
If you look closely you can see the strake flap at the rear of the strakes. The strakes were fuel tanks that were emptied using pressurized air from the engine. The shadows you see on the strakes are from the cover bulging out slightly because of the pressurization.
The wing flaps were split into inboard, mid, and outboard segments. The mid and outboard segments were driven by an actuator that hung below the wing. The inboard segment was driven by an actuator in the wing just like the model. Each flap segment on the aircraft was split into two pieces, a forward and aft segment. When the actuator rotated the forward segment one degree relative to the wing, a linkage caused the aft segment to rotate an additional one degree relative to the first segment. This allowed the wing to change shape (camber) in flight and the flight control computers kept the shape optimized based on the altitude, speed, and g's. So the X-29 could automatically drop it's flaps to fly slow, raise them to cruise, or partially lower them to improve it's turning ability in a dog fight. One smart Grumman cat!
I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.Where do we stop over?
On another note, has anyone thought of putting landing gear on their X-29? Any recommendations? I’ve never done retracts before, But I wouldn’t mind the challenge.
JG
I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.
Thanks for all the advice, I took this on-board and added some additional pitch controls on the stake flaps and split the wing flaps. It flew great on maiden. I will reduce the roll rates further.
What all up weights have been achieved? This one weighs 1.2kg with 2x1500mah 4s batteries in parallel.
Video:
I know this is probably REALLY late, however, about the landing gear. When I put landing gear on mine I put it on and based the positioning off of some scale drawings of the real X-29. This meant that the landing gear was pretty far forward. I never was able to get the plane off the ground. I even changed the canards into full moving canards and still, nada. Perhaps if somebody was dedicated enough to continue changing landing gear positions, angles, etc. Then maybe there would be some results. However, I don't think the X-29 is quite really meant for LG.
Nice neat build!!After having this kit for nearly 2yrs, I finally finished the build last night (minus control rods and receiver)! It went together really well. The only issue was the wing gap you can see just behind the servo. Shout out to Andres for making this such a fun and interesting build. Inside is a FMS 70mm EDF and 70A ESC. Only thing I did extra so far was make a 12" XT90 extension, and put a barbecue skewer at the leading edge of the vertical stabilizer for rigidity.
Probably won't get to maiden in until next week because of the forecast, but after that I plan on adding details and giving it a nice fictional USAF paint job. Probably something challenging from an F-5/F-20, or maybe a low-vis gray scheme to make it look modern. I was talking to someone at the field Saturday, and they suggested I do a video for my channel on detailing and painting FT planes, so that might become a thing... if it survives the maiden.
What paint scheme/details would you like to see added to this plane?
View attachment 140263
JG
Lol mine feels "slow" until I do full throttle pass 1ft off the ground. Everyone watching says it is fast tho.Yay!!! Successful maiden this evening! I'm so happy!!! One aborted takeoff due to slow throw, but once it got in the air it wouldn't come down. It might have been ever so slightly tail heavy, but I was able to trim out any bad tendencies. This is one slick jet. At first I thought it was really slow for a 70mm EDF, but after thinking about it for a while, I'd chalk it up to a really good design and smooth flight characteristics FTW. The large size of the plane may also have something to do with it. My 4000 mAh 4s handled it like a champ, and after exactly 3min of flight I landed with 3.84 in each cell. My only disappointment was the sound. My other EDF screams like a pinched newborn at full throttle, but I could barely here a whine from this one on a full throttle pass. I can't wait to fly it again!
Now that I know it flies well, shall we pick a paint scheme? Any suggestions?
well I might be very late to this, but I designed a X-29 pain scheme a while ago and I'd love to see it in reality.Yay!!! Successful maiden this evening! I'm so happy!!! One aborted takeoff due to slow throw, but once it got in the air it wouldn't come down. It might have been ever so slightly tail heavy, but I was able to trim out any bad tendencies. This is one slick jet. At first I thought it was really slow for a 70mm EDF, but after thinking about it for a while, I'd chalk it up to a really good design and smooth flight characteristics FTW. The large size of the plane may also have something to do with it. My 4000 mAh 4s handled it like a champ, and after exactly 3min of flight I landed with 3.84 in each cell. My only disappointment was the sound. My other EDF screams like a pinched newborn at full throttle, but I could barely here a whine from this one on a full throttle pass. I can't wait to fly it again!
Now that I know it flies well, shall we pick a paint scheme? Any suggestions?