FT Delta Pusher Concept

Hi all !

(First of all, please forgive my mistakes, I'll do my best but English is not my native language)

Here's a mod for the FT Delta Wing, one of the first planes I built (and probably most of you ;-) thanks to Josh & Josh !

I was fascinated by its design simplicity : how can this thing fly, with that squared borders ?!
However it flies, and it does very well...

But after building FT Versa Wing and FT Slinger, I realized that aerodynamics had a huge impact on how a plane flies !
Well... I knew it, but this time I had a proof : same prop (8x5), same motor (Turnigy 2826/1400kV), same LiPo, (2700mA/25C), even same weight (786gr vs 808gr ready to fly) => FT Versa Wing is maybe three times faster than FT Slinger !

You may check the difference on these videos :

FT Slinger :

Looks funny ^^
It flew a little faster but nothing insane unfortunately...

Getting rid of the power pod is a great idea : Josh and David did this on FT Versa, I did : it's way smoother !
Let's give it a try on FT Delta !... but... what will it look like ?
So I took a sheet of paper and draw some lines :-)

Looks gorgeous enough to me, now let's build it !

Here's the cockpit (please refer to the end of the article for more details) :

I wanted to keep my FT Delta as is, the goal was just removing the power pod then glue the cockpit on the top to put electronics, but when handling the plane I noticed that the paper was peeling off the foam of the ailerons...
Well, "No problem : I can remove it !"...
Finally, I used to remove the paper from the whole plane : "It should be even lighter !" ^^

Here it is !... but Depron without paper is way too soft ! I had to add carbon fiber to make it stronger...

I put the same electronics I'm using on FT Versa Wing (1400kV/30A/8x5/2700mAh)

Let's go for Maiden !

Guess what ?
It's fast, very VERY FAST !!! But it flies straight... only straight :-(

Fins were too soft, my FT Delta "Pusher Concept" flew from itself, moving ailerons had no effect at all !
It crashed on third attempt...

The reason I'm laughing on the picture could be the clear weather (unusual in this season on north of France ^^), but it isn't : now I know that FT Delta with these mods penetrates the air way better than before, meaning that what I guessed may become true :-D ! (not sure if this sentence is "understandable", sorry ^^)

So I decided to start another one from scratch, keeping the paper with foam this time !
Well... In fact it looks quite the same !

This time it flies very well !
It's still fast despite it's 70~80gr heavier, and much more manoeuvrable (<- does this word really exist ?) than before !
The fact it's tiny compared to the FT Versa makes it look even faster... but wait... it IS REALLY faster !!!

Now I'm sure I'll enjoy this plane, it's time for paint job !
I like using PaintShop to check what it should look like in real life :

I love it !

Let's begin the REAL job with the hardest part : drawing text on the wings...

Not too bad : I'm proud of this one B-) !

Not the hardest part, but the one that takes longer : applying paint !

Looks like a space shuttle at this point :-D

And voilààà !
I'm proud to introduce you the FT Delta "Pusher Concept" !!!

Video link :

I hope you enjoyed reading this like I enjoyed writing it :-) !

@FT crew : keep up making our dreams come true !

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Here are the plans of the cockpit : sorry, it's a (very) dirty draft !
Cockpit Plans

If you print it as is, it *SHOULD* be the right scale. The whole thing is about 412mm ; 1 square = 5mm x 5mm.
It should look like this :

I didn't report any of my adjustements on the plans, you'll have to do it yourself (sorry).
Here are the ones I remember but I may have forgotten some :

Now you just have to carve up a piece of foam from the rear of the cockpit to let control rods go through :

Glue it on the wings and you're done !

Oh ! well... one very last thing : cut it the way you want, but don't forget you'll need to open it ^^I used strong magnets to put the "door" firmly closed and reinforced it's hinge with the thin layer of hot glue method.

Here are some tips :

TIP #1
I didn't make any plans for the nose : it's just a 100mm piece of foam, folded to match a nice sharp shape, using the method Josh uses for folding wings. I filled it with hot glue then put a nut into it because I had to make the plane a little nose heavier (about 30gr).

TIP #2
I didn't use any notches for securing the cockpit on the wings. That may be a good idea to reuse the original  power pod holes. However I just hot-glued mine and I had no issues for the moment... but I didn't hard crashed yet !

TIP #3
Wing's front borders have been cut to match a sharper shape.
I glued a piece of carbon fiber at the bottom of the upper piece of foam (just above the sheet of paper) to reinforce it :

TIP #4
As you can see on previous pictures, my maiden landing wasn't as good as expected !
That's because of excessive throws : I put the control rods too close to ailerons surface, I had to set expo @85% to get something easy to fly !
When you expect huge speed enhancements, put your control rods as far as possible from ailerons surface.

TIP #5
Since I started everything from scratch, I don't have servos hole anymore.
I hot-glued servos at the exact same location than before, but they don't go through the wings anymore ; I secured them with a zip tie going through the wings.
I placed it one on top of the other with the top servo's hub pointing the opposite direction of the bottom one.