Official Freewing Twin 70mm AL37 Airliner Thread

[walkerm45]

Thanks 4923crew

Your plane looks great....

[Slowflight]

Two coats of clear Polycrilic satin and the rest of the details painted, now is assembly time !!!!!

[urrl]

[Condor060]

Just Finished up Trump Force One. Going to maiden her this Sunday. Will post video. But for now I have a short vid on the build

[MikeT]

Just Finished up Trump Force One. Going to maiden her this Sunday. Will post video. But for now I have a short vid on the build

Nice
Mike

[Slowflight]

Well now to wait for nice day to maiden, wind has been nasty last few weeks in S Fla.

[LowandSlow]

[QUOTE=Condor060;n240508]Just Finished up Trump Force One. Going to maiden her this Sunday.

Love it! I was also thinking doing of this one. Settled on a FedEx. Nice job!

[dutchwhite001]

Has anyone thought about "back dating" their 737? Like maybe adjusting the nacelles and shortening the fuselage, losing the wingtips, etc? Just rolling around the BB's a bit. I know I'm about to hear it from Alpha about engineering, aerodynamics and flight characteristics, but hell, a good old dash 400, 500, even a 300? I might just buy another and play around a bit.

[Condor060]

[QUOTE=LowandSlow;n240678]

Just Finished up Trump Force One. Going to maiden her this Sunday.

Love it! I was also thinking doing of this one. Settled on a FedEx. Nice job!

Yeah, I like FedX and the older US Air with the chrome top. Those were two choices of mine as well but somebody had to do Trump Force One. lol

[xviper]

Has anyone thought about "back dating" their 737? Like maybe adjusting the nacelles and shortening the fuselage, losing the wingtips, etc? Just rolling around the BB's a bit. I know I'm about to hear it from Alpha about engineering, aerodynamics and flight characteristics, but hell, a good old dash 400, 500, even a 300? I might just buy another and play around a bit.

Those are fairly dramatic changes to a proven design. At $500.00US a pop, I'll bet the vast majority of hobbyists interested in this plane isn't going to mess with something that may not fly worth a darn. My money tree has become pretty dormant of late and my last harvest doesn't permit such a possible planned disaster.

[dutchwhite001]

Dang it Xviper, somebody has to try! I would be using my tax refund check anyway. Mine as well give it back. Like I said, it was an idea that won't go away. I know you are right about proven design and all, but I've been looking at comparative design drawings that are to scale. It "looks" like it could be done. But then they built the Beech Starship too! Had bright sunny weather last two days here! Gonna start spraying here soon! I truly hope your winter is about over.

[xviper]

Dang it Xviper, somebody has to try! I would be using my tax refund check anyway. Mine as well give it back. Like I said, it was an idea that won't go away. I know you are right about proven design and all, but I've been looking at comparative design drawings that are to scale. It "looks" like it could be done. But then they built the Beech Starship too! Had bright sunny weather last two days here! Gonna start spraying here soon! I truly hope your winter is about over.

I guess "man's" natural sense of adventure and curiosity is hard to subdue. Go for it, brother! Throw a gyro on it and it might just fly. If you're going to shorten the fuse, you might want to look at shortening the wings a bit as well. The AL-37 already has a tendency to wallow in a cross wind. I think it's because of the wings being a tad too long for the fuse when scaled down to a flying model. A shorter fuse may make it wallow even more but that's where the gyro with high gain on the rudder might help.
I made a twin FliteTest Viggen. It flew for about 10 feet. A little voice in my head just kept telling me I had to try it. Remember the old Eflite Scimitar? I grafted a 90mm EDF onto it. It flew once. Just had to do it. Now you know why my money tree needs a rest.

[Slowflight]

I guess "man's" natural sense of adventure and curiosity is hard to subdue. Go for it, brother! Throw a gyro on it and it might just fly. If you're going to shorten the fuse, you might want to look at shortening the wings a bit as well. The AL-37 already has a tendency to wallow in a cross wind. I think it's because of the wings being a tad too long for the fuse when scaled down to a flying model. A shorter fuse may make it wallow even more but that's where the gyro with high gain on the rudder might help.
I made a twin FliteTest Viggen. It flew for about 10 feet. A little voice in my head just kept telling me I had to try it. Remember the old Eflite Scimitar? I grafted a 90mm EDF onto it. It flew once. Just had to do it. Now you know why my money tree needs a rest.

You can reduce the fuse size without having to do anything to the wings, actually the AL37 has proportions that are pretty close to scale when looking at the 800-900 series. Boeing has used the same wing on the 300-400-500-600-700-800- series for years, that’s what makes the plane so profitable. If you decide to shorten the fuse on the AL37 it has to be proportional so it can be balance later with just moving the battery, too much from the rear and it becomes very nose heavy and vice-versa. Some one has done one I think I saw it on FB it resembles a 500 series with the study fuse, ugly in my view. As for the wobble in cross wind I saw a video on You tube of one flying with the winglets off and it eliminates the gobble, plane is a tad to light for the winglets in my opinion , but what do I know. JMO

[xviper]

You can reduce the fuse size without having to do anything to the wings, actually the AL37 has proportions that are pretty close to scale when looking at the 800-900 series. Boeing has used the same wing on the 300-400-500-600-700-800- series for years, that’s what makes the plane so profitable. If you decide to shorten the fuse on the AL37 it has to be proportional so it can be balance later with just moving the battery, too much from the rear and it becomes very nose heavy and vice-versa. Some one has done one I think I saw it on FB it resembles a 500 series with the study fuse, ugly in my view. As for the wobble in cross wind I saw a video on You tube of one flying with the winglets off and it eliminates the gobble, plane is a tad to light for the winglets in my opinion , but what do I know. JMO

You may be right about the winglets contributing to the wobble. I've been told that winglets on airliners were introduced so as to effectively increase the length of the wing without actually increasing the length of the wing. By leaving them off, it's kinda like shortening the wing considerably.
Even though they use the same wing on different models of the real plane, it may not carry over the same principles when it comes down to an RC foam plane. Alpha has said on occasion that when designing a model airplane, sometimes true scale dimensions have to be altered just so the thing can fly right. I've seen this on several other RC planes where someone complains that the rudder (for eg.) is too big and not to scale. Then that person goes out and cuts the rudder down so it looks perfectly scale. We never hear back from them about how the plane flew. Makes me wonder if for the sake of "scale-ness", the plane flew right into a dirt nap.

[Slowflight]

You may be right about the winglets contributing to the wobble. I've been told that winglets on airliners were introduced so as to effectively increase the length of the wing without actually increasing the length of the wing. By leaving them off, it's kinda like shortening the wing considerably.
Even though they use the same wing on different models of the real plane, it may not carry over the same principles when it comes down to an RC foam plane. Alpha has said on occasion that when designing a model airplane, sometimes true scale dimensions have to be altered just so the thing can fly right. I've seen this on several other RC planes where someone complains that the rudder (for eg.) is too big and not to scale. Then that person goes out and cuts the rudder down so it looks perfectly scale. We never hear back from them about how the plane flew. Makes me wonder if for the sake of "scale-ness", the plane flew right into a dirt nap.

Oh I totally agree, Not everything can be exact scale specially airfoils. I’ve drawn several scale plans for large birds and I always cheat on the dimensions to make the plane fly better, and you know what no one notices. I redesign a Ziroli DC3 to a turbo prop that required stretching the fuselage as the props are considerably further forward, so out of caution I enlarged the elevators 10% in cord, plane flies awesome and again no one notices the slightly larger elevators.

[wldecker]

Anyone fix the wheel rattle? Maybe someone can machine a nice aluminum set that fits better!

[Wild Man]

Anyone fix the wheel rattle? Maybe someone can machine a nice aluminum set that fits better!

I am working on mine right now R&D machining the wheels to except small chopper main shaft bearings. Took a lot of some time to find the right size bearings. good luck with yours

[Matto73]

Hi guys, has anyone had issues with the blue box or just bypassed it? Thanks

[Gary Cooper]

Hello All,

I'm late to the game! College comes first! I've been reading through for a while but haven't had a chance to post.

Years ago my grandfather worked for Eastern Airlines. I had to recreate N276EA, Spirit of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, from the Eastern Airlines reboot in 2014. My mods include: custom paint/Callie Graphics Eastern scheme, cockpit dome light, tail logo lights, aluminium leading edge tape, 3D printed nose gear brace/ -800 winglets (not pictured) and spinner swirls.

Thanks to everyone's contributions and recommendations here!


Gary

[Aros]

Looks fantastic and welcome Gary!