WingBAT 48

Typical November weather outside today so it's time retreat to the workshop and work on my fifth glider model from the Stan Yeo stable.

Another 48" flying wing, but of traditional balsa and spruce construction instead of the usual EPP foam. I modified the all-sheet wing construction slightly, cutting 'windows' to reveal the ribs and adding rigidity with spruce spars in place of the 6mm sq. balsa spacers.

Stan accidently sent me the wing plan from the WingBAT 48E electric version with wing-mounted servos, which looked intriguingly 'normal' for a flying wing design. I called Stan and wondered whether to use this layout and install the servos in the wings, but he assured me that servos in the fuselage were much more aerodynamic and sent the correct plan in the next post.

There's precious little space to swing a servo arm in the compact fuselage, so I opted for a tandem arrangement as shown.

It is still too wet to venture out, so I'll see if I can find that old bit of translucent Solartex I was saving for a rainy day...

...and a couple of weeks later, here is the finished model:

Notice the weather has changed from too wet to too cold for flying; but fine for photography.

It's not quite PSS, but there's more than a whiff of the de Havilland 108 "Swallow" about it.

The centre of gravity is spot on with a 1200mAh square AA Ni-MH at the front. The all up weight is about 605g, which is 75g less than that shown on the plan, in spite of the Solartex wing covering.

The WingBAT 48 is reputed to be an excellent flyer as well as being one of the best looking tailless gliders around in my opinion. Roll on springtime...

Happy sandings

Russell H