Project Foil Guesses?

[Alpha]

Indeed, we do. :)

[Spitfire4life]

Its not foil, but it sure is something to get excited about and we like giving you guys nice surprises:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QfuF2-utgQ

Stuart.

[Topshot19]

Hope it’s the l-39. That’s my favorite looking jet

[purduephigam]

Yeah I thought Hoot was supposed to be a warbird, but maybe I just thought I saw that somewhere. I think we were all hoping for the FOIL release, but I'm excited nonetheless. Hope everyone enjoys the release tomorrow!

[seaviper]

Based on a still frame from the video, I say it's an L-39. Can't see any details. But the wing and fuselage plan along with intakes tells me it's an L-39. And I really hope it's not the yellow paint scheme..

Or is this another project called "Hoot"....I am confused

[Patrnflyr]

Ok, just saw the video on the next plane. We have 24 hrs to find out what it is. Hoot Gibson was involved in the design of it and he’s also flown the full scale one. Wonder what it’ll be?

[Valkpilot]

Thanks for telling us what FOIL is "not." So far, we know it will not be black, and not a MIG-25. And it is not a U2, SR71, or F117.

Not all U-2s are black:

[tclaridge]

Thanks for telling us what FOIL is "not." So far, we know it will not be black, and not a MIG-25. And it is not a U2, SR71, or F117.

[Marco Polo]

a light weight dent resistant skin would be the holey Grail for foam planes, no one has come up with a good solution yet. You have to think that sooner or later this has to happen, looking forward to it.

RC Lander had a series of planes about 5-6 years ago which were foam with a polypolyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic shell. PET is the material used on bicycle helmets. The concept was good but the two major issues were weight and inability to produce scale appearance. The PET coating adds a significant amount of weight because the entire aircraft needs to be coated for uniform appearance. The print quality is decent but the plane tends to look artificial / "toy'ish" and the eye is drawn to any area where the various PET pieces do not perfectly align. I agree that a thin, durable, scale looking coating would be a nice advancement in scale foamies. For now the various Beacon coating products seem to be a step in the right direction.

[Valkpilot]

Well, you didn't say it wasn't an F-111, so *maybe* I'm on the money given the hints? Definitely a SEA combat bird that foiled TSR-2 production, which you held a model of....

It's more likely the "greasing" of the MOD by General Dynamics AND the UK's socialization that did in TSR-2.

[Pete Lane]

Thanks for the Replies and feedback Pilots. It is not my intention to derail this thread, although it is my intent to try to advance Aeromodeling as a whole.
As stated, everyone benefits . Perhaps the answer lies elsewhere .....we are dealing with direct sun lite actually cooking the foam and it just boils up.
As with our own skin protection they say " Pick your cover " I.E. Hat....Tent...sunscreen etc. Perhaps a sunscreen can be added to the foam or paint
top coat to repel the rays as I already know it is effective in modern clear coats for automobiles. Hmmm.... reminds me of the plasti dip commercial.
The key here is minimal weight and maximum protection. I don't intend to wait for that and am going to start my own experiments.
I am not sure a flat black plastic shell is going to solve this problem either, as I have seen warpage on some of my own parts,

Their is a system that is found in kindles and note books that charges the screen particles just once, causing them to stand at attention.
The voltage is then taken away but the image remains.
Its akin to a magnet and ferrite particles on the paper trick or even rubbing suede one way or another. Maybe the paint of the future can
be convinced to do so ?
It would then be black only on command.

Pete

[rifleman_btx]

I've said f111 for a while now, that really would be cool

[mr.frankenjet]

I have done a few planes with light cloth and minwax polyacrilic. It comes out nice but takes allot more time than I'm willing to spend. I did eps but never epo foam. A dip or spray would be the bast case IMHO to have a protective coating applied economically.

[Topdogzrc]

It's not a Blackbird, sadly. Until black paint plays well with EPO foam, it's out of the question for us. And it's not a Foxbat, either, although that would be fun!

I recognize that this guessing game can be fun for some (such as those who asked for it) and not fun for others as time goes on. As I often say, our production calendar is always full and stretches years, so amid all the speculative fun don't get too hung up on waiting out any single Project. I must remind myself that this hobby we all love won't be reinvigorated by any single golden model or any rapid fire procession of a specific series. Rather, it will be reinvigorated only by each of us sharing the joy of flight with those around us, one new pilot at a time. So dust off that F-14, or click Buy on that FW Hawk or LX Blackbird or FMS Hornet, and go wow some new stranger at the local flying field.

And remember, the more we fly, the more we cra---I mean make space in the garage.

Well, you didn't say it wasn't an F-111, so *maybe* I'm on the money given the hints? Definitely a SEA combat bird that foiled TSR-2 production, which you held a model of....

[Gilatrout]

I've experimenting with some success laminating the cockpit of my Carbon Z T-28 with a lightweight fiberglass and using polyurethane sanding sealer. Since most of the weight of the polyurethane is water, when it dried it was very light. It wasn't hard like epoxy fiberglass, but I think it might be better in this case to have a more flexible covering.

I'm not sure it would work well on a wing, but for some applications it seems to work well.

[mr.frankenjet]

a light weight dent resistant skin would be the holey Grail for foam planes, no one has come up with a good solution yet. You have to think that sooner or later this has to happen, looking forward to it.

[Pete Lane]

Indeed.
I had a Lanier Transit back in the day and it was actually very robust with the coating on it.
If the golden goal was to first develop a black SR71 then the R&D costs could be kept within reason
and perhaps expanded to other aircraft later, Speaking of Alpha,,,,,Alpha models had a line
of EDF models that had a very smooth egg carton like coating and I don't remember them
ever gatoring. I wonder if its at all possible to pre gator the foam so its stable and then laminate
some black depron over it as I don't think depron puffs up either ?

Pete

[fhhuber]

Their were some jets that were sold by the fruit stand that had a thin plastic coating over them. Albeit heavy (er) I am positive that FW is looking into sheilding the foam surface. The shell could actually be precolored to lessen the weight even more and would only need to be on the top....unless you fly inverted for extended periods....lol
And airflow would carry the heat away.

Vacuum form. Dipped. Sprayed. Laminated.
New type of foam. Ok....I will say it " Built up "
Its all possible. Hint...Hint....I like Tiger Meet
Alpha.

Pete

Lanier used to sell several models with foam core wings wrapped in thin plastic sheet. (to give the effect of balsa skin on the old styro wing cores)
These were overweight in general and thus had disappointing performance.

Thinner wrap with more modern adhesive would potentially give the desired result without excess weight but doing the product development would be expensive and take time.

[Pete Lane]

Their are solutions such as card stock. Gun metal.
Epoxy coating. And tub liners to cure the problem.
So its imperative that we find what works best in that situation and then try to mimic it on the exterior top surface of the model aircraft.

Thoughts ?

Pete

[Pete Lane]

Thanks for your support. Its thoughts like these that our community collectively disscuses that have helped all manufactures build the products we use today. I wanted to focus on the five " M's " of manufacturing for a bit. These are.
1- Man
2- Materials
3- Managment
4- Mother Nature
5- Methods

When their are issues. The root cause can usually be attributed to one or several of these. Sure their are others, such as Money.
Since we are talking about a green house effect lets take the popcorned cockpit for instance. Its the worse case scenario.