1/18-ish r/c F-117 Nighthawk

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 9:36 am

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... :IT&ih=007

The hope is that these will be available eventually, airframe only, for much less. Maybe half. Pretty close to 1/18. Wingspans out to 1/19, length seems a bit less but that may not be including the vertical tail or it could be that it's not quite proportioned right, which is not uncommon for r/c jets.

Regardless looks pretty good and may be the best there ever is. These are not popular r/c subjects because they fly so poorly (due to the real aircraft's unstable design).

pickelhaube · Post by **pickelhaube** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:54 pm

Your right the wing has no dihiedral at all . It is almost like an cross section of a wing. Real hard to fly. Power is probably the only thing that keeps it in the air and of course a computer . Kind of like the Phantam. What was said about it ? You can get a brick to fly if you put a big enough motor on it.

Post by **aferguson** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 3:16 pm

right. the f 117 is interesting in that, being designed in the 70's before computing power really took off, the design had to be somewhat simple. So they could only work with flats and angles, rather than complex compound curves.

So, they designed a shape that was invisible to radar and then made that shape fly. Fortunately computer technology was far enough advanced to allow the resulting completely unstable aircraft able to fly by making something like 30 trim adjustments per second.

Anyway, i've always thought the stealth fighter was a very neat plane and will be excited to get this, if it can be had for a reasonable price.

i just can't wait.......i just can't wait..... (listening to J Geils at the moment).

Folkwulfe · Post by **Folkwulfe** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 7:50 pm

You all are essentially correct that the F117 could not fly without being augmented by flight control computers.....mostly. The airfoil shape of the wing does provide the required lift, but with induced drag associated with the flat facited design instead of a smooth flowing shape a normal wing cross section has....but it does the job. Remember that the F117 is a sub-sonic aircraft, therefore the induced drag penalties doesn't hurt it in the speed catagory. Dihedral in the wings is opted out by dihedral in the tail-planes and computer augmented spoiler/slats on the wings. They make minute corrections to the induced drag to keep "the pointy end out front". The more the slats and spoilers have to work, the larger the radar cross section and the chance of being seen by enemy radar, so the correcions are very suttle and hard to see unless you get real close. Another trick up it's sleeve is asymetrical thrust augmentation. In other words, the jet exhaust is adjusted from one side to the other (also very small adjustments) to keep yaw from slewing the aircraft side to side. Although it's been said that a brick would fly with a big enough motor, the brick has to help some or it's just a ballistic bullet....so give the design team a little credit guys. They made a facited diamond out of a brick!!!

Black_Dragon_One · Post by **Black_Dragon_One** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:38 am

I love this just cost too much

Post by **aferguson** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 9:45 am

popeye357 · Post by **popeye357** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 5:41 pm

man, i would love to add that to my collection!

Post by **aferguson** » Wed Oct 08, 2008 7:47 pm

the airframe only is $97. Shipping is $60 from China though......negotiating.

More details to come. I may see if i can get someone else to order this first, from the rcgroups forum, before taking the plunge myself. Try to find a guinea pig in other words.

Post by **aferguson** » Fri Oct 10, 2008 9:44 am

final cost is $97 plus $66 shipping from china. I have no idea if these will be available in north america eventually. Possibly.

If anyone wants to order one let me know and i'll post the paypal address to order through.

Post by **aferguson** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 8:35 am

here's some more info on the F-117 including a video. Looks pretty good.

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=937122

olifant · Post by **olifant** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 12:18 pm

Thanks aferg, this thing looks great. Is it another foam model? Assembly looks like it would be very simple...

Post by **aferguson** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 7:50 pm

yes it's foam.

Black_Dragon_One · Post by **Black_Dragon_One** » Sun Oct 12, 2008 10:36 pm

when you get it take pic of it and the other modern bird...

Post by **aferguson** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:35 am

Here are some detail pics of the upcoming Nighthawk. Looks pretty good for an r/c foamy. Works out to be 1/18.8 scale by my calculations. The available data for the length of the F-117 varies quite a bit from 63 feet long to over 69, which i imagine is due to nose probe lengths.

This should be available for airframe only price of less than $150 shipped, in time. Banana Hobby is known for being expensive.

http://store.bananahobby.com/1774.html

olifant · Post by **olifant** » Sat Oct 25, 2008 9:49 am

I WANT