In the spring of 2001, some members of our club decided to get into 1/2a combat. We would tie streamers to the back of the planes, and try to cut each other's streamers with the propellor or wing. Enthusiasm was high, and my Dad and I wanted to get in on the action. The planes of choice at the time were Ace Simple Series warbirds, which were faster than any other 1/2a we had seen, but were still sluggish compared to the machines of other clubs. When my Dad and I began, we decided to build a plane from scratch, using the best design features of the planes we had seen. We went through several iterations, all of which are chronicled on this page.

Our first design was a wing-and-boom design using a 6in chord NACA0015 airfoil. The design was based largely on an old Future Flight Fun Thing, and flew better than the Ace Simple Series, but not by all that much. This design was competetive, but other club members began pushing the envelope as well. Eventually, we were hungering for something faster and more maneuverable.

Our first attempts to improve the design started with changing the wing planform and thickness. Slight performance gains were seen, but nothing phenomenal. I realized that if we were going to make any big improvements, a totally new design was necessary.

A flying wing was appealing because of its simplicity in construction and durability in flight. We attempted to create a forward swept flying wing that would "snag" the streamers of other pilots. This design proved unwieldy because of the extremely long nose necessary to balance the plane.

Next, I remembered a plane I had seen on the internet, the Foom Delta. I decided to try a scaled down version of this plane, as it looked extremely compact and durable. Surprisingly enough, the first design flew. It was definitely better than our old designs, sacrificing very little maneuverability and gaining large amounts of speed.

Over the course of the summer, various refinements were made to the design. We first thinned down the wing section for greater speed. Next, we switched from a conventional tank to the bladder tank with engine hardware from Larry Drikill. Lastly, we switched from our wood engine mounts to custom CNC-machined aluminum ones, which kept fuel-creep from destroying the foam.

The design is now very refined, and was doing very well in club combat sessions. Unfortunately, combat ended when the winter came, and hasn't picked up since. The time demands wore on the participants, and nobody has been interested in resurrecting combat for this season.

The current design is basically a flying engine with a plane attached. The performance of the plane is highly dependent on a strong, reliable engine. Our system is very demanding to start and tune, especially in the rush of a launch, but if a routine is kept, its performance is unmatched by any other we have seen.

The fuel delivery system is both a bane and a blessing. It offers extremely consistent engine run if everything is tuned properly before launch. If things aren't right on launch, though, they just get worse in the air. And when the engine isn't running right, it tends to sip fuel and takes an eternity to die. To get a consistent run, it is important to run out any remaining fuel from the engine at the end of a flight. Then, the engine needs to be primed ever so slightly, and started carefully so as to avoid flooding. Once running, air bubbles are purged by holding the plane vertically, and the engine is tuned to the richest setting that will keep the engine running. After time has been given to let the settings stabilize, the plane is launched.

A surprisingly significant performance improvement came from the aluminum engine mount. We had developed the mount because the old mounts would become fuel-soaked, and would allow fuel to seep into the foam. Foam and fuel don't mix, and the planes would get soggy after a few weeks and would need replacement. The aluminum engine mount allowed us to seal the joint between the foam and the mount, but also increased engine power by roughly 50%. The heavier mount damped out engine vibration, increasing power output dramatically at higher RPMs. Despite gaining 1oz of weight with the new engine mount, the planes became much faster with it.

The engine itself is a pretty standard Norvel 0.061 AME. The most important change is a 128TPI needle valve to allow for more precise mixture tuning with the high pressure of the bladder tank. The head is also changed from the stock Norvel to a Doug Galbreath head using a Nelson glow plug. This head lets the engine run smoother, which results in higher power output when strapped to the plane.