I'm a beta builder and really what I can tell you is that the VAST majority of these designs are one-offs from Mr John Overstreet. He is the designer of the Master Series F4U Corsair. I too was interested in the Gee Bee but John confirmed that this, among others, were one-off airplanes with no plans. If you follow FT and John on other social media platforms, John has been interacting with FT a lot over the past 6 months. John is hosting building workshops at his residence. The latest FT episode posted over the weekend revealed that John's P-47 is up next on the slate. While there are many other designs in the pipeline, FT continues to prioritize aircraft as it suits their own goals and ambitions. FT tells the beta builders what is up next and sometimes gives the beta builders very little notice of this, as was the case with the Corsair. Sponz continues to format the plans for open release and he does such an exceptional job of it. But the delay in releasing them on-time with FT videos is more or less related to the amount of time given for him to do so and the team to review them with few, if any, errors.
I've currently been building a
F-16 by our friend Ben Harber. He debuted this design last year at FF and it is such an exceptional flying airplane and a very straightforward build. My understanding from conversations over the past couple of years is that FT does not do EDFs as much due to sourcing the actual EDF units. I also understand that they continue to look for avenues into this area but it seems that the EDF sourcing continues to be a business struggle.
As FT continues to migrate into Edgewater and all of the work that continues to go toward improvements there, I urge you to continue to be patient. What I do NOT speak on behalf of FT, my suspicion is that only one Flight Fest has been announced this year due to this effort and them needing to remain focused on the Edgewater Vision. I believe this is also true of the once-weekly mega builds they have been trending as of late as well as the lower pace of new designs compared to years past.
