A light weight Gloster Meteor

So far I have not had any success using ESCs on !S and the EDFs cannot use 2s but as they are brushed motor there is no reason why they should not be connected in series so they should then be quite happy on 2s and the ESC will be too.
www.youtube.com/shorts/5OZkyr98nVw
It is running on a 1000mAh 2s.
 
At full power it draws 4.24A giving 30.3W.
With a working installation I can get on and finish the Meteor!

The ESC has twin outputs so how about a 4 engine super light weight?
 

Spent all day struggling to get all the RC electrics in but at last it is done and all glued together.
 
It all works!
Wing span is 20.5" (529mm). With a 600mAh 2S it weighs 121g with 82g of thrust available.
The motors in series draw 3.4A so a 660mAh should give close to a 9 minute duration or even longer if it flies on reduced throttle.
Still the cockpit to make, make good the fuselage under the wing and some internal structure to hold the battery in the nose along with a bit more silver paint! 

With the cockpit /battery hatch complete and a light coat of silver
 
Some light sanding and then another thin coat of silver.
Spent far too long working out how to print the bubble part of the cockpit canopy. It needed 5 sketches to loft more or less the right profile. Vase printed in single wall PLA.
 
It weighs 1g!
Then more time making good the fuselage under the wing.
 
Now structurally more or les complete.
Some calculations show it will have a wing loading of 5.7 oz/sq ft. Light for an EDF but I fear it will fly (if it actually does!) pretty fast for a 20.5" span plane.    
 

Now structurally complete and painted.
 
The only bits left are a pair of magnets to hold down the rear of the cockpit/battery hatch.
 
And a parallel/series connector for the batteries.
but at 124g it is rather heavier than I had intended.
Will it fly? Only a test flight will give an answer.  
 

I agree its not perfect but its not that bad.
 
 
I am rather more concerned about any asymmetric thrust with no rudder!
One nacelle is LW-PLA printed whilst the other is 2mm Depron plank covered. The printed nacelle meets the EDF with a sharp edge. Not ideal foe  EDF airflow entry, particularly on a slow flier.
It alloys me so just in case the Meteor might need a major wing rebuild I printed out a new front nacelle part with a proper rounded leading edge.
 
The picture makes the new nacelle look a bigger diameter but it is only a modification of the original CAD file so it should fit. It weighs just 0.1g more.
Still waiting for the parallel/serial connector bits to connect the batteries but otherwise it is ready to go..   

The brushed EDF Meteor is at last complete so a short test run with the two 650mAh 1a installed.

Not quite enough thrust to get it to slide over the soft bed surface.
The maiden will depend on a really calm day!

As it couldn't slide on the bed I repeated the test on the polished dinning room table and wow! does it slide. If it was as long as Putin's table in the Kremlin it would likely be able to take off!
The problem is it definitely wants to turn to the right suggesting the right EDF is not creating the same static thrust.
The right EDF uses a printed cowling rather than the Depron planked one on the left. The planking gives a rather better radius entry lip rather than the sharp "edge" of the printing nacelle.
To avoid disturbing the EDF and its wiring I decided to cut back the front of the printed nacelle and replace it with planking in the same style as the other one with the hope it would then match its static thrust.
 
The first two of 22 planks.
 
If it proves to make no difference I may have "adjust" the thrust somehow, however as the EDFs are coupled in series using a single ESC the option of using two channels for differential thrust is not available.

The fully planked  and painted RH nacelle.
 
Just for fun here is a video of it being slide tested on the dinning table.

I looks quite likely but that is no guarantee it will fly!
 

Not completely but it certainly made a difference.
I just don't know how susceptible it will be to asymmetric thrust. The fin is not that big.     

A good idea but my concern is the fans are just a push on friction fit as I found out when I ran one for too long on 2s, the fan simply came off. I fear the  motor shaft got a bit warm and softened what ever is providing the friction.
Seemed tight enough when I pushed it back on but I really don't want to risk making either of them any looser.  

I tried the lightweight Meteor this afternoon. It is very under powered. After about 10 ft it stalled dropped a wing and did a good job on the nose!
Now repaired and repainted the lack of thrust concerned me.
 
I have 3 sets of 1s batteries, 2 pair of 650mAh and 1 pair of 600mAh. All are quite old. The 600mAh are slightly heavier (5g) so not surprisingly I have only used the 650mAh ones.
The low thrust level did make me wonder if the heavier 600mAh might be a better battery with a higher effective C rating.
A quick test this evening certainly proved it was the case. Using the 600mAh pair at full charge it could actually slide the Meteor across the soft bed which the 650s never did.
Tomorrow looks like it could be a pretty calm in the morning although it still feels like the Meteor is going to fly rather fast and will need a pretty firm shove to get it going.

Even if it does fly, and I can control it, its speed will make a damage free landing rather unlikely.