I am very excited to be able to show you the new ZN Line Caelestia that I will be flying at the 2011 F3A World Championships in Muncie Indiana.
This is a brand new design that has been a collaborative effort between ZN Line (Jean-Pierre Zardini is the sole owner of ZN Line), and myself. This brings many decades of F3A experience to bear on this design. I personally am extremely pleased to have been able to work with ZN on this project. I have flown ZN designed models exclusively since 2002 and have always been very happy with the quality and flying characteristics of those models. This one is sure to be no different! We have taken all the best of our experience to create the best F3A plane for todays sequences. Some of the design features include:
- No chin cowl, for reduced weight and consistent fuselage structure (electric only!)
- optimized air inlets and outlets to minimize the need to make additional cuts into the fuselage
- fuselage sides are curved to provide maximum geometric stiffness to the model
- wing/stab position, incidence, dihedral and thrust line optimized
- Wing tip fences for maximum lateral stability and improved knife edge performance without additional mounting/coupling issues (Thanks to Chip!!!)
- Tip cap on the elevator to protect the moveable surface and also aid in easier setup
- Flared rudder (smaller than Xigris) trailing edge to provide better direction stability and softer neutral feel
- Wing profile and airfoil optimized
- Fuselage profile adjusted for a balanced area distribution
- Slight anhedral stab
- Canopy base set to be parallel with fuselage “zero line” to aid in setup if needed
Designing the model in 3D Cad allowed us to control the finest detail of every parameter of the design. As well the fuse, wing, stab, rudder plugs will be cut on a CNC router based off this CAD model to ensure that all these details are retained.
The model will be produced as a full composite plane, and painted in the mold (colors etc. still to be determined), and I believe even custom paint jobs will be available.
All of the current available electric motors should fit the model without issue, obviously I will be installing the Plettenberg Advance motor, and mounts will be made to specifically mount a variety of motors.
I will continue to post more info and details as the prototype model is produced, and production models are made.
Chad
