The P-38 isn't quite complete yet, but after the design phase is done, most of the heavy lifting is complete, which means construction and testing will go rather quickly. If all goes as planned, I'll be ready to move on to another design. If it crashes again, well, depending on how simple the adjustments are, I may just put the whole P-38 project on the back-burner.
With that in mind, I want to start selecting a new model. I have a few ideas in mind (read more to see some), and I'm leaning toward a particular plane already, but I'd like to do a little crowd-sourcing to see what would be most interesting to those actually following this blog. Here is an idea of what planes I'm considering, and why I think they'd be interesting. Feel free to comment on your favorite(s), or suggest others!
A-10 Thunderbolt II (a.k.a. "Watrhog")
The A-10 would produce some new challenges, along with being fairly simple to construct. Most of the model would follow basic design principles, thanks to the relatively straight wings, a single fuselage, and a simple canopy. The dual vertical tails on the ends of the horizontal tail would produce an interesting challenge, and the round non-integrated engines would give it a neat aesthetic. This one is my current front-runner.
Extra 300S
The Extra 300S is a favorite of stunt pilots like
Patty Wagstaff and is tuned to extremes for events such as
Red Bull Air Races. The design is straight-forward, which might make this a nice change of pace from the complex P-38. Some flare couple be added by trying to make it a rubber-band-powered plane, but I don't think paper will handle the stresses involved very well.
Consolidated PBY Catalina
A classic plane from the WWII Pacfici theater, with a unique design. The Catalina is interesting because the fuselage is suspended below the wings. This would certainly offer a different challenge than yet another plane with the wings attached directly to the fuselage.
The horizontal tail would also offer a challenge. It lies on a plane even with the wings. This would require a balance of support structures and keeping the weight evenly distributed.
Bombardier Learjet 60
Let's face it, who
woudn't want their own private jet? This one would be a little small to whisk you around at altitude, but it would make a very nice paper model. The interesting factors would be the engines, the top-mounted horizontal tail, and the signature diagonal stabilizers.
Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde
Rounding out the list is the now-retired supersonic airliner. With its super-simple form, this plane should be really easy to design/build. Heck, there isn't even a horizontal tail, since all of the control surfaces are on the wings. The neat parts would be the Concorde's boxed engines, and its drop-nose--and I'd really like to make the latter part movable, and have both positions flight-worthy.
Not this time...
Some planes I'm interested in building, but won't make the cut this time:
That's it for now. Of course, there are thousands of planes out there, and I'm just starting to scratch the surface. Let's hear which ones you would like to see made into a flying paper airplane model!
2 comments:
I like this one: Consolidated PBY Catalina
Thanks for the input! Flying boat +1!
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