A380 Project - Hucknall MAC

I personally like to see a scale like model flying in a scale like manner. Fast aerobatic models are good to watch, and I admire the guys who can fly like that.............. being a RAFVR(t) officer for about ten years, I flew in numerous Chipmunks, Bulldogs and Jet Provosts.. doing some of the stunts that our models are achieving, but I don't think that represents everyday aviation. To that end, my preferred models are of flying club training aircraft, cargo planes and most recently, airliners. Models that look like a full sized plane

I bought a £2.00 polystyrene 'Chuck glider' model of a generic airliner from a swapmeet...... a university lecturers engineering project. It sounds crappy, but it has a 80mm diameter fuselage and a span of some 700mm. It had a set of wings with mock engine nacelles and a depron tailplane that you bent and twisted to give lift and direction. After about six months collecting dents in the garage, I took it out into the garden and threw it. It went on and on, so I decided to fit Electric Ducted Fans (EDF) to it. I bought a GWS EDF Islander and robbed the fans, motors and motor housings, and glued them onto my chuck glider. I installed a couple of cheap 5 gram Chinese servos, and connected them to the tail surfaces with fine piano wire. It flew OK on a two cell LiPo but could do with more power. I then used a 3 cell pack, putting some 12volts into cheap 6 volt motors. As expected it had more power, but after 3 flights, the motors welded themselves into a solid block of steel and copper.

Imagine the glee when reading on the Internet about a six foot span Airbus A380 polystyrene slope soarer being in its development stages in Hong Kong. I spent numerous evenings reading threads on forums about this kit, through development, testing and building notes. I have now decided to go one better than the glider, and use 55mm ducted fan units, but install a more efficient, and infinitely more powerful brushless motor into the two inner motor pods.

A bit of history comes with my new Airbus A380. I ordered it from Hong Kong from a chap called Ming Lou, the owner of Windrider models in HK. I paid by PayPal, and it was shipped off. As EDF units look better than prop motor imitations, I wanted to use them, but they are far less efficient for the cost over a prop motor inside the jet nacelles. A plan jumped out at me. Buy a second set of wings, and use the EDF set for showing off, and use pair of cheap brushless motors and 8" x 4" props for everyday club flying. This would give me the best of both worlds, long durations and loads of power from the prop wings, but scale-like jet power plants if anyone was watching.	After about 10 days, my second wings came, then the next day the spare engine nacelles arrived. After 2 weeks, I emailed Ming and asked for progress on the main model kit, and he said that it was posted on the same day as the wings and it was on its way. If I was worried he said, he would post me another one. So I waited.
After 3 weeks we had another chat and I waited, and after four and then five weeks I waited. I had now bought my motors, EDF units, radio, paint undercarriage batteries, glue and a kitchen sink. But still no airbus model. Ming sent me the shipping tracking number, and that showed the parcel leaving Hong Kong, but never landing. I still waited True to his word, Ming emailed me with the news of the posting of my replacement model. On the Wednesday, five days later, an email with the Hong Kong post tracking number arrived. Upon checking this on their web site, the location of the model was Nottingham sorting office. A mere six days after being posted from those far off shores, a man in a white van in Nottingham delivered my A380 to Hucknall in a BIG box. I stopped waiting.
As you can see by the first dry build, and with my 10 year old son for scale, the A380 is a bit of a beast. At this stage it weights just two pounds. See how interested he is ?	Above: A380 with surfaces hinged and servo'd up..... Anyone want to buy a burnt out garage? If you have ever owned a polystyrene model, or even had a tray of chips, you will know that the surface gets damaged really easily. With this in mind, a great deal of reading and internet searching was completed to solving this problem. One option is to fibre glass the model. This is a sure fire fix, but adds a great deal of weight. To shave some of that weight, one could use a water-based varnish. The transport for the varnish evaporates as it dries, making the final finish a lot lighter than glass resin.
Another option is to paper Mache the whole structure. using wet brown paper and a watered down PVA glue. In the ended I tested various brush applied solutions. Using a coating with any kind of solvent is out of the question..... but finding true water-based stuff is almost impossible. Acrylic paints still contain some sort of polystyrene dissolver. I tried sealing the model and then painting with other paints, but they ate straight through to the base material, eating it away to nothing. Finally I found some artists water based paints that came in some 50 colours and were in a closing down sale for 50p each. They took direct onto polystyrene, as well as on top of Ronseal clear wood sealer - water based of course. After loads of tests and numbers of coats to get the best result, one sealer, two paint and then a final sealer gives colour and a kind of rubberised finish to the material. That's it, I am finished with messing now, I started to paint up the A380.	The wings should be in two halves as a slope soarer, joined with a carbon rod and friction. As my model will be powered, the thrust will pull the wings out of line I think, so I have joined them and cut away the fuselage below the wings root and attached that part to the one piece wings.
The wings with the first coat of paint.... remember these are 6 foot span. the first blue I tried looked good, but was a little too bright for British Airways. At this stage the model weighs in at some four pounds, including the 3700maH 3 cell LiPo pack, servos, Rx and paint. A few more bits to add yet though. This blue is more like the BA shade now.	That is not a model transmitter, but it does look rather small against the A380 kit
Spot the livery yet? My A380 is powered by two 55mm EDF units in the centre engine pods, powered by brushless Hyperion motors delivering 2580 revs per volt. running at around 12v input, thats, er ......... 31,000 revs, and that seems lots. The outer motor pods will have a pair of cheaper 'brushed' motors, just to assist with takeoff. The model will easily fly with the inner motors, but the drag from the 14 wheels on tarmac is too much I think. initial taxi runs will determine whether I need the outer motors though.	BA tail flag painted, cockpit and window detail will be the next area for attention.
Obviously this not a fully scale model, but if BA do decide to buy these planes over the new Boeing, I am sure that this will be a fair representation of the present incarnation of the BA livery. Cable runs are already in place, buried under the skin in readiness for an LED navigation system. As all of my stock of LED's was lost in my garage fire, the only remaining kits are my samples........ and these will take some stripping out of demo models. The A380 may be lit, or it may be not.
Cockpit and cabin windows now in place and custom vinyl text - ready for sealing with floor varnish for anti 'Hanger-rash'. Presently, the motors are installed, and the wires route into the cabin ready to wire up. I am awaiting the brushless speed controllers to arrive from Hong Kong.	First runway handling tests were made using the two EDF units, but the model was well under powered on the ground due to the drag of all those wheels. A couple of attempts were made but the tests only produced a fast car with wings. So I waited for the delivery of EDF numbers 3 and 4.
The motors eventually arrived, and were duly installed..... That is four Brushless motors, four brushless speed controllers and all of the added weight that this set-up brings with it. An amp meter on the set-up showed a massive 92 amps draw on full power at 12volts. This needed Two x 3cell LiPo packs with a rating to handle at least half of that power.	I carved an area of foam on top of the wings to sink the second battery below the fuselage level, and ran some 40 amp cables into the main cable trunking. This attached to the second battery wires so that the draw could be shared by both packs. All four speedos now run unto multiple 4mm gold bullet connectors for the power input, and the esc to receiver wires all have the red wire chopped off, and then connected together via custom "Y" leads into the the Rx throttle channel.
With the clubs electric day fast approaching, I needed to make the maiden flight before that day. So on the Saturday morning before the show on Sunday... at 08:45, the maiden party arrived at Blenheim Lane gate before anyone else came along..... don't you hate a maiden flight with an audience? We got in at about 09:15 and built the airliner up. Ground speed tests proved favorable so I was ready.	The actual maiden flight I took the model up the runway, turned a 180 and sent full power to the throttle. The plane sped down the runway, and rose very scale like off the tarmac. I made about three full left hand circuits before the low pass you see on the video clip. several figure of eight cross over's, then a really smooth and controlled landing. All in all very successful testing, and one happy owner.


The original 'Chuck glider' Airliner complete with GWS EDF units fitted. Paintwork was just a rough coating to give me some orientation in flight. Next was to install some brushless 12mm can motors to handle the 12voltage.........	Now it has the desired power with the efficiency to fly for 15 minutes. This to me has been a great success, and wanted to build a larger version of my airliner.