B17 Flying Fortress.

B17 'Flying Fortress' O.D. 'scratch built'.
Don't ask why, I'm not even sure myself. Well I bought a plastic kit of the B17, and every thing looked about right for scaling up, fuz and engines wouldn't be too big, plenty of wing area, also every one does the Lancaster, so why not.

The clincher was when I searched the web for model B17's, and saw their flying weights, that had to be a challenge, I felt sure I could build a hell of a lot lighter than most of them.

Also I wanted to try out a different wing construction method. The bigger Spitfire I built was white foam covered in glass cloth and epoxy resin. This time I wanted to try just white foam with strengthening spars and just tissue covering using thinned PVA. Seems to have worked.

The fuz and tail feathers are all balsa construction, except for the cockpit, nose, and the tail cone, they're blue foam.

I need it to fit my Honda Jazz, so smallish bits and pieces required.

Latest pic, just before it's first flight. The silver comes from car spray cans.

The 'Liberty Belle' nose art just happened to be one I liked, I know this model isn't the actual scale Liberty Belle and no disrepect was intended. Remember I don't do 'scale', just models I like.

When it came to the motor connections and power, I tried to come up with the best compromise between power and economy, I think it has worked Ok.  There are two ESC's, one for the inners pair on a 7 cell pack, and one for the outers pair, again on a 7 cell pack. Each pair of motors are connected in parallel and are independant of each other and turn APCe 9x6 props.
Once fully tested I will probably add more detail such as side gun positions, better weathering etc

Span -100"
Motors - Graupner Speed 600 7v2  Update - Sept 2010  - KD2217-16 Brushless.
Gear - 2.3:1 Olympus belt drives   Now direct drive.
Prop - 9x6 APCe two blade   Now 9x4.5 APCe two blade.
Cells - 14 cells, one 7 cell pack for inners, (both in parallel), one 7 cell pack for outers, (both in parallel). Inners and outers have seperate ESC's the packs are 3300mAh NimH   Now Lipo 3s 4500mAh two packs, one for inners one for outers.

Weight - 'Weight' and see. Should be around 11lbs flying. (Was actually 12lb 1oz)  Now 10lb 2oz

Chaging from brushed and geared with Nimh, to brushless and Lipo, saved almost 2lbs. Well worth it.