Radio Controlled Vickers Super VC-10

Why build a Radio controlled VC-10 ?

A number of reasons. I suppose the main one is because when I was 14 years old I flew from Lusaka in Zambia to London Heathrow and on route I managed to get up into the flight deck, that was May 1970. A memory I'll always cherish. I also flew on a East African Airways VC-10 from Mauritius to Dar-es-Salaam in 1968.

The picture below is the actual VC-10 I flew back to the UK on. Sadly she's been scrapped

In my humble opinion the VC-10 is one of the best looking airliners ever built, so graceful, just looks right. All credit must go to the RAF for keeping these aircraft flying. I believe 2013 is the retirement date.

As I'm a Radio Controlled flyer I thought I should build one. Easy I thought just find a plan and build it. Well at the time when I started there weren't any. Spent hours searching on the net and realised I had to do my own. Did find some 3 view drawings which I tried to scan into a AutoCAD but not very successfully. In the end I found some 3 views in eps format which converted to DXF format but still needed quite a lot of work. After about a year on the plans, on and off I decided to make a start. The plans weren't complete but I needed to build to figure stuff out.

Learning AutoCAD has also been great fun.  I'm no expert but now I can use it for what I need. I used a very good book as teaching tool which I highly recommend. http://www.sybex.com/WileyCDA/SybexTitle/AutoCAD-2007-and-AutoCAD-LT-2007-No-Experience-Required.productCd-0470008776.html

Construction of the RC Super VC-10

Fuselage

The plane is constructed from foam using Depron, XPS and white foam.  Depron and XPS are mainly used for insulation.  Depron comes in various thickness and the two used are 3mm and 6mm. XPS comes in 1.2m’ x 0.6 x 52mm sheets.  I get XPS from B and Q www.diy.com in the UK.  Although there website doesn’t show it.  The white foam is the just polystyrene also form B and Q.

The plans were a challenge as at the time as there weren’t any so I had to learn AutoCAD and do them myself.  Since then the renowned modeller Chris Golds  has produced a VC-10 of his own which plans are available form Quiet Flight International.  His is a more traditional build.  My VC-10 is 1/30th scale wingspan is 58” (1.4m) length 68”.

I’ve used a slotted spine technique with 1/4 formers. To ensure it was straight I built a jig from mdf and then glued the top formers in.  As there where so many former to make I made a template out of 1/4” ply and stuck the depron on with double side tape.  I then used a router with a bearing guide to do the outside and a hole cutter for the holes on the inside.  I blunted off all the teeth on the hole cutter so it didn’t rip and ran it very fast on my drill press.

Engines

This took some figuring out and I scraped the first attempt because they looked just like tubes.  The 2nd attempt was done in 3 sections allowing me to taper the front and back.  Still not 100% happy but I think they are good enough.  Fans are 55mm EDF with 4100Kv out-runner motors.

Tail

I wasn’t sure how to do this at first but eventually it came to me.  There is a 3mm carbon spar running up the tail section for strength and rigidity.  I used a Dremel with the mill attachment which makes a very good job of putting a 3mm channel.  Saw this at SDParkflyers YouTube channel.  Tail part we all cut with a hot wire cutter using the feather cut system  A good article here on cutting foam cores http://www.amtcomposites.co.za/pdf/mamt-course-docs/Cutting-Foam-Cores.pdf

Each tail plane has a servo which is connected to separate channels in the receiver and then mixed.  This is so the both work in the same direction without have to rotate one 180 degrees

Wings

These were constructed in 3 parts with the tips in balsa.  The main parts are white foam  with an aluminium 6mm tubular spar with balsa trailing and leading edges.  This was then covered in brown parcel paper with PVA glue mixed 50/50 with water.  Need to cover bottom first and then the top straight after otherwise the wing will warp.  Using templates and the cutting the cores using the feather cut method I was able to build  in 2 degrees of washout and 3 degrees of dihedral.  Wings are joined with  5 min epoxy and then a  fibreglass/pva bandage.

Covering

The outer skin is 3mm depron which does bend and has a grain!  Its to do with the manufacturing process as the sheets are formed.  I wasted quite a few pieces before I found this out.  Depron will bend and the best technique I found was to use parcel tape on the outside of the bend and then bend around a former.  I use a old cardboard tube that some plans came in about 5” diameter.  I then used a heat gun to help hold the shape but used sparingly.

Centre of Gravity

As any RC flyers knows CofG is critical to successful flying.  After much research and advice from Alasdair Sutherland and Chris Golds I built a 1/4 scale chuck glider to test my calculations.  With the wing being very swept back the CofG is a long way on the root chord, 77% of root chord.

Looking like a VC-10

Tails is now attached and wings are now mounted

Electrics

The motors are 4100kv brushless out runners with a speed controller (ESC) for each motor.  The ESC are 30 amp Hobbywing units from www.giantcod.co.uk . Batteries are 2 x 3000mAH 3s Lipo’s . I’ve paired the inners motor to one battery and the outer to the other, this is so if I have a failure on one half I don’t have all the thrust on one side.  With the engines being close to the fuselage this may not be a big issues but better safe than sorry.  The small red wire on all the speed controllers have been disconnected, this is to stop the the ESC’s from confusing the receiver as the BEC cut off won’t be identical on all ESC’s

The receiver is Spektrum 2.4Ghz 6200  and will be powered by by a separate battery.

Almost there

Not far off now, fuse finally covered and hatches cut out to allow access to receiver and and batteries.

It Flies

Well after 3 years she finally flew on the 30th Jan 2011 and we got some video.  Still in primer but soon to be painted as G-ARVB the VC-10 pictured above.

Still quite a bit of finishing off to do but I didn’t want to spend to much time on here before I knew she could fly.  All went very well club chairman did the honours and once trimmed out I had a few circuits.  She flies very nice and look really good in the air.

 

Finishing off

VC-10 is being finished in BOAC colours as G-ARVB which was the VC-10 I got up on the flight deck whwn I was 14 years old. 
Not quite done yet and still needs some work and a gloss finish.

VC-10 Finished

Here she is painted up and ready for her second flight as soon as weather permits .  Batteries will be 4000mAH for the second flight and launch will be by a bungee.

Bungee Launch Testing

VC-10 is going to launched by bungee but before committing her to the launcher I’ve built I wanted to test it and confirm where the bungee hooks should go.  Used my depron MIG-29 from a  RC powers plan for testing.  I made the bungee hook so that I could quite easily reposition it.   As you can see from the video it works and I’ve realised I need to reposition the hook on the VC-10, its too far forward.  Hopefully weather permitting the launch will be very soon.

";" alt="">