WEIGHT OF AN 1/18 MODEL

[supersonicfifi]

The other day, I was just wondering about the size of the 1/18 aircraft that i own and came to think about their weight & relative weight :

If you take the real size of an F 18

Length: 56 ft (17.1 m)
Wingspan: 40 ft (12.3 m)
Height: 15 ft 4 in (4.7 m)
Wing area: 400 ft² (38 m²)
Empty weight: 23,000 lb (10,400 kg) 23 000lb/18 = 1277lb !!!
Loaded weight: 36,970 lb (16,770 kg)/18 = 2053lb !!!!
Max. takeoff weight: 51,900 lb (23,500 kg) /18 = 2880lb !!!!!


The size of my model is correct but the weight should be between 1200 & 2800 lb !

This is how densly packed are the real aircraft ! imagine a 2000 lb model in our scale ?

I can't imagine our displays and the postage costs if everything was really true to scale!!!!!!!!! !!!!

[Black Lion VF-213]

For linear dimensions this would be correct.

For weight, not really. Simple division of F/A-18's weight of 23K lb / 18 equaling over 1K lb is way off.

The true scale weight is using the cube rule. Divide the weight by 18 three times. Therefore a F/A-18's 23K lb down to 18 scale would come to a little over 3lbs. Hence our models are very overweight scale-wise since the BBI F/A-18 is more like 9 or 10 lbs.

[tmanthegreat]

Black Lion is correct. Its been a common principle in aircraft design from the very beginning to make them as light as possible. Therefore planes, despite their size, are much lighter than they look. I mean, my family's Cessna 172 plane looks large when my dad's SUV is parked next to it, but in actuality, the plane has a gross weight of approximately 2,450 lbs whereas the SUV (a 2002 Toyota 4Runner) has a gross vehicle weight of 5,250 lbs - over twice as much as the aircraft...