Versa, EDFs, Horton 229?

Long time Reader, first time post-er here. 

What got me on this project was watching the National Geographic's show on Hitler's stealh fighter, the Horton 229, as seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP2kpNDwBEU  Not that I like the Nazi's or anything, but this plane was awesome! If they had it before the war, things could have been different. It freaks me out that this thing was made mostly of wood, and they had successful flights (until a engine went out and the test pilot was killed).

I then seached for some EDF's, having never messed with them before I went to hobbyking, goodluckbuy, rctimer, grayson hobby, banggood, etc. Since I'm a baller on a budget I settled on the hobbyking 50mm for $20, US warehouse of course. Also, I went with these 50mm EDF's due to not drawing so many amps. I don't have 50A esc's lying around. So when looking into EDFs, make sure you realize how many watts these suckers take! EDF's: http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__50368__Hobbyking_50mm_Alloy_EDF_4800kv_3s_Version_US_Warehouse_.html

With EDF's in hand, I had to make the shroud they fit in. Simple, Just make cylinders with foamboard. I did taper the circles a bit, marking the top of the foam board every inch, and the bottom every 3/4 inch to give it a funnel shape. Then just rolled it up and slid the edf in it until it stuck, then secured with dabs of hot glue. 

Cutting out the Blunt nose section of the Versa allowed for easy edf tube installation, electronics wiring, and balancing, etc. I don't have many pictures of that while building it, but here's whats left when I went to the Horton. 

I've learned that Nothing I fly stays pretty, so before I go all-out on an unproven design I'll take baby steps and test as I go. No paint/stickers/awesome-clear-canopys/etc. Just the white foam and edf's

And here is a video of that Blunt Nose to test the motors, and basic design, etc. Raw footage, audio's a bit sharp. Thanks Gar for filming!

and another I was fliming with one hand (throttle hand) and flying at the same time.

After messing around and proving that the two 50mm EDF's will make it fly, I started on making it look a little more like the Horton. First I didn't cut the wing flat, but gave it a rounded tip like most of the other Flitetest planes (undercamber?) 

And I extended the control surface a bit, as you can see by the markings of the orignal FT Versa Wing

When it was put together, I thought to myself, I need to paint it. Wish I had green, but black looked decent. gave it that camo look. These pictures are post-maiden flight. Also, I have never not-crashed any plane I've flown.

I Cut the motors down into the wing to be almost even with wing, instead of just sitting on top, trying to achieve the horton look. Ignore the messed up shroud. they took the most of the damage during crashes. 

As you can see the horton didn't have them on top.

and a couple more

And lastly, the Maiden: Thanks Cousin Aaron for filming!

Other thoughts:

I was a little worried about not having vertical stabalizers, but who hasn't crashed the Versa and lost one or two of the wing tips, and noticed it still flew pretty darn good?

Now it's time to make the pointy nose, and the taller canopy for this bad boy and It'll be a bit closer to scale.

Also, when at a park in the middle of Daybreak (Salt Lake City, UT) this kid comes over after he saw us flying, and brings his Old Fogey! the plane I learned on!  I had my 75% versa at that moment. Love How flite test is spreading all over like a rampant disease.

Lastly, here's another project I have going (Versa is my favorite if you can't tell):

Thank goodness for the built-in redundancy with this one, as I lost a prop on this bad boy on it's maiden (locktite, or just tightening the bolt would be nice), but it still flew, pretty smooth also, I thought I'd have to give a lot more input to counter-act the yaw of just one motor. And you've got to love the prop-n-slot! This does have some mad power. I think I'm going to put two DT750's here, and maybe switch the 10" props with some 11's and see if I can get some vertical climbing going on!

Thanks for reading/looking a pictures! and thanks flitetest for all you do!