RC Jet Glider: RCRCM Tomcat with EDF Drive System

My most recent RC winter project: Turning the RCRCM Tomcat into a jet glider!
Been flying the RCRCM Tomcat with a folding prop drive on a 4S LiPo setup for a while. An awesome plane overall - great flying characteristics, very agile and extremely sturdy. Just... The drive system I used wasn't all that convincing. The plane climbs at ~12m/s, which is enough to quickly reach an altitude for gliding, but doesn't really give me any "Hotliner Vibes".
So I thought: If it has such a spacious fuselage for the battery, glides so well and can take the added wing loading, why not bolt an Electric Ducted Fan onto it?
The result: Pure Airgasm!
Equipment:
Plane: RCRCM Tomcat Electric GFK+
Fan: WeMoTec Mini Fan (69 mm)
Motor: HET Typhoon 2W27
ESC: YGE 90 LV V3 with Kontronik heatsink (ribbed cooler)
Battery: Turnigy Nano-Tech 6S 4000mAh 35C
Wing servos: KST DS125MG
Tail servos: Graupner DES 587 BB MG
Model data:
Wingspan: 2.6 m
Flying weight: 2.8 kg
Top speed (estimated): 250 kph
Sound: Well, watch the video! ;-)
I used a spare fuselage for this so I can still fly the folding prop version if I just want to do some glider aerobatics.
Hardest parts were fitting the EDF nacelle to the fuselage and closing the nose. Also, providing proper cooling to the ESC took several optimizations before the ESC stopped complaining about high temperatures after each flight.
The battery pack barely fits into the fuselage, but it fits. With the fan mounted that far in the back, I only needed to add 30 grams of weight to the tail, despite the large battery pack.
Plane available here: www.modellmarkt24.de/pi/Model...
EDF drive system available here: shop.wemotec.com/Mini-Fan-evo...
Update: Did a speed measurement with a radar gun: 215 kph upwind, 250 kph downwind, 232.5 kph on average. Maybe I get an even faster average with a steeper approach and heading closer to the radar gun. ;-)

[@peterblu-mell3344]

Thanks for your information that inspired me to put an EDF on my old F3B model like you can see in the video next to yours. I like to fly with ist a lot Peter Blu-Mell

[@G.SpotFPV]

very nice project, I have take a look to the pictures it seems to fit so perfectly, how do you join the nacelle to the fuselage? I have some very similar project with the rcrcm Hornet. Thx

[@Fliegerbaron]

Thx mate! I basically cut three holes into the fuselage, glued in three pieces of 1.5mm carbon with epoxy and used those to bolt on the nacelle. I also glued three pieces of carbon into the inside of the nacelle's base as mounting points to have the screw heads end up nearly flush with the foot's surface instead of on the outside. The tricky part was to glue in the carbon pieces into the fuse so that the nacelle would sit perfectly straight after bolting on. To achieve this, I first glued the mounting points to the nacelle, bolted the carbon pieces for the fuse on there and then glued those three into the fuse at once with the nacelle aligned straight. Though the most work in fitting the nacelle on the fuse was definitely sanding down the base to sit flush on the back of the fuse...

[@G.SpotFPV]

@@Fliegerbaron well done, the result is beautifull, thank you for the detailled description it will help a lot 🙏🚀🔥

[@StuntDoubleFPV]

Nice setup :) I picked up a second hand e-Tomcat and i just cant decide on a motor combo for a fast setup. This plane just cant do a heavy motor and battery, it needs so much tail weight!!! Could you share some pics of your edf attachment please

[@Fliegerbaron]

Stunt Double FPV Thanks! Yeah, I had the same issue with my nose drive setup - the bird's nose is just too long! Couldn't go bigger than a 177g motor and had to cram the 4S pack all the way back in the fuselage under the wing connector. Still needed 25g in the tail to get the CG right. Here's a few close-up shots of the mounted EDF drive: photos.app.goo.gl/p4RiXU5XDBCuaXGE8 Unfortunately, I don't have any pics from the construction process...

[@StuntDoubleFPV]

Fliegerbaron thanks for the pics. Looks like a fair bit of work went into that housing

[@Fliegerbaron]

Well, the housing was actually provided by the manufacturer(WeMoTec) in excellent quality. The work I had to do was just fitting it to the back of the fuselage.

[@lagunaotun]

Hello , congratulation. Very good project , coul you tell me the set up the turbine. where can i buy one ?

[@Fliegerbaron]

Andres Mejia Thanks! For the setup of the plane and availability of the drive system, have a look at the video description. 😉

[@kirkglundal4289]

I bet the Elevator servo gave out as the Tomcat design has a full flying stab. That's alot of turbulent force on the FF stab if the center of pressure is not just right. Sorry to hear of your loss! Where did you fit the tail servos? Flight pack?

[@Fliegerbaron]

Thanks man. Yep, that's what I also suspect as the cause for the failure. One lesson learned the hard way, I guess. The successor has a T-tail, fortunately, with the EDF blast passing underneath the horizontal stab and only washing over the rudder. Got my hopes up this will live longer. 😅 Regarding your questions: The flight pack just barely fit into the canopy opening, and I was able to slide it back into the fuselage just a few centimeters. Unfortunately, that meant I needed to install the tail servos all the way forward in the nose, and the RX in front of them. That's why I couldn't find out the reason for the elevator failure: Upon impact, the flight pack smashed into both the tail servos and RX, like they were hit with a sledgehammer.

[@truth409]

Motors on gliders get boring..... I've tried it on 12 different gliders and now we just went back to pure....

[@kirkglundal4289]

Yeah, I have two E-gliders but the motor is just to climb out. Sometimes I forget they are there! Definitely, prefer NOT having to deal with the extra electronics on a pure glider setup. Easier to get a clean set up. However, the motor is nice for fields or sites where a hand launch is "iffy" and you can push the boundaries a bit more with the bail out motor button!

[@truth409]

@@kirkglundal4289 If you learn how to thermal you wont like motors......youre to new.... You probably don't have any interest in thoroughly at all or dynamic so

[@andyMSH700]

Great video...I have a full carbon RCRCM Typhoon which has a design fault...after a fast loop it skews out to either side totally out of control. RCRCM are a nightmare to deal with so I will never buy from them again. Even with snapflap adjustments it still skews out so a strange design fault. Even the stock motor which RCRCM suggested and sold me went up in smoke due to quality issues....

[@Fliegerbaron]

Thanks! 🙂 Hm... The behavior you're describing sounds a little like the CG was set too far aft. Did you try adjusting that? Because the setup values as stated (or pre-set) by RCRCM can be somewhat off at times. On my new DG 600 (also from RCRCM), the horizontal stabilizer was set at a pitch angle that was several degrees too low. Luckily, I took some measurements before the maiden flight and fixed this, and now the bird flies beautifully. That said, a motor going up into smoke when operated within its specifications is definitely a bad product.

[@martinhyde4835]

Sounds like yours is set up incorrectly - I’ve had literally hundreds of flights with my typhoon and it’s been 100% perfect in flight with zero bad habits.