Meet the first 1/7 scale fully featured jet powered F-8E Crusader available on the market.
The “last gun fighter” is one of the most influential aircraft of the 70s period as it was heavily engaged in the Vietnam war and served exceptionally well its American fighter pilot aces.
Our plane has been CAD designed and CNC cut over a period of 3 years, from the original Vought Aircraft blueprints. It was the object of our utmost attentions and was refined many times along the design period. The airframe we are offering to the market is the 6th design iteration. So we are proud to say that our product is a tribute to the illustrous “ Mig Master” and its pilots. The story of the design can be read on this blog.
This plane has been the object of a thorough scale design. the fuselage is engraved with all the panel lines and panel joiners rivets ( both flush and protruding types ). But it also features ( and this is an industry first ) all the intermediate stiffeners and stiffeners flush rivets skin wrinkles. When looking at the skin at a shallow angle, the waving pattern of the stiffeners and wrinkles are subtle, but apparent.
The airframe is built from our GlassTech or Cloudtech processes. It uses a proprietary technology that allows us to fuse the epoxy glue joints to the shells at the closure of the molds.
The fuselage is made from either monolithic glass/ carbon fiber ( glasstech variant ) or sandwich ultra thin kevlar/ PEI core matereial ( Cloudtech JWM variant ), with the highest quality aircraft certified Finnish birch plywood available on the market for gear and wing support bulkhead. The remaining of the internals are made from aero grade airex/ carbon fiber laminates.
All the flying surfaces are made from Airex/ glass fiber/ carbon fiber laminates.
The wings internals are full carbon fiber.
Here is a carbon fiber/ airex Crusader sheet after cutting on our router.
The optional landing gear is ultra scale and features many laser 3D printed parts with a 50 micron resolution. It is 100% cut in-house on our Siemens machines from Alcoa USA certified Al 6061 T6 and Al 7075 T351.
The wing is in 3 parts.
The center section incorporates the tilting mechanism ( operated with 2 servos or screw jacks ). Two HM carbon fiber large tubes are dimensioned to support 10 g loads. It also includes the operational inboard flaps.
The two outer panels include an integral leading edge slat and the outboard flaps. Both are operated by standard size servos. The slats can be deactivated and glued in retracted position for people looking for simplicity. Both flight controls are live hinged.
The wing tilt mechanism was also very extensively studied, CAD design and CFD tested.
The wing hinge system is designed to hold a load of 300 kgs with a safety factor of 1.8, including the resistance of the aircraft grade birch plywood used as support. The carbon fiber servo tray as well as servos used are design to bear a load of 30 kgs each ( fail-safe approach ). The scale position of the hinge line being place at the average center of lift location. This allows us to certify this airframe for +/- 10 gs of load with the wing tilt system mounted. Details explained in this white paper.
The stabilizer shaft position and stiffness have been extensively CFD studied and optimized for strength. The stabilizer tube is a certified 1/2" Al 2024 unit turned down to 11.994 mm. It is supported by two very large ABEC 5 needle bearings of 14 mm wide pressed in a billet aluminum block. The actuating arm is clamped and keyed into the shaft. The shaft is glued and double pinned into the stabilizer carbon fiber structure.
The entire plane was the object of a thorough CFD study and optimization. The wing airfoil is a modified Michael Selig S6063, optimized for the required Reynolds numbers and for the use of leading edge slats.
The stabilizer configuration and airfoil combination was specifically very carefully optimized to avoid tip stall and masking at the high angle of attack required when the wing is tilted up at slow speed with flaps extended.
The internal ducts have also been extensively studied and optimised. Our Crusader feature a 5% continuously divergent inlet duct and full carbon bypass as well as 100% USA made austenic fulll hard stainless dual wall steel pipe. Pipe cooling and internal flow have been thoroughly optimized and tested with FLIR infra-red cameras as well as internal sensors.
The base kit comes pre-painted in two tone insignia white and light gull grey Navy scheme without markings. Custom color scheme, markings and nomenclature are available.
A lighter JWM version is available, which comes at 12.7 kgs/ 28 lbs dry with a jetcat P-100 and plasma bag tanks, with scale cockpit but excluding ordnance.
Regular versions are 13.7 kgs/ 30 lbs dry with a B-140F and two kevlar tanks.
1/7 Scale Crusader flight display from Oli Ni on Vimeo.
Crusader aerobatics in 12 kts crosswind from Oli Ni on Vimeo.
The following options are available:
Ultra scale landing gear, pneumatic.
Ultra scale landing gear electric.
Titanium/ carbon fiber thrust tube
Kevlar fuel tank system 4 liters, parallel
Kevlar fuel tank system 5 liters, serial with integrated air trap
Retractable fuel probe, electric.
Belly speed brake, electric
Wing pylons
Ordnance
Specifications:
Scale 1/7.2
Fuselage length: 2.3 m/ 90.4"
Span: 1.51 m/ 59.4"
Power: 140 to 160 N/ 30 to 35 lb.f
Fuel: 4 liter/ 140 fl.oz kevlar tanks ( standard ) or 2 liter plasma bag (JWM ).
Dry weight: 12.7 kgs ( Clouodtech JWM ) to 13.7 kgs ( Glasstech ) / 28-30 lbs
MTOW: 14.3 -16.7 kgs-/ 31.5-36.8 lbs
Schemes: