[AJCoholic]

For you experienced ducted fan fliers (Byron fan unit):

How heavy a jet can you expect to fly with the Byron fan and an 80 or 90 engine? The plane I am making is going to weigh a bit more than I expected - probably about 14 pounds instead of 12 as I had hoped. The wing loading will still be a light 27 oz/sq foot or so but I am wondering how the fan unit that is supposed to put about 12 static pounds of thrust will fly the 14 pound model?

I want this thing to go from grass. My 17 pound Reaper will get up fast with the 12 pound Wren turbine, so I figure even if I am getting only 10 or 11 pounds with the ducted fan I should be OK? I hope!?!

Andrew

[Len]

Hi Andrew,

No Problem! A friend and I routinely flew a Byron F-18 weighing 19Lbs dry on an OS .91 in a ByroFan. We were on pavement though and I doubt that it would have rog'd off grass. At 14 pounds and and 27 oz/sqft you will have no problem as long as your wheels are large enough for grass operations. The ByroFan puts out a tremendous amount of STATIC thrust (thrust at zero ground speed). I flew a Byron F-16 on a Rossi .65 and then a Rossi .80. It weighed in at 12.5 Lbs and it was very easy to take off from grass even on smaller wheels (2.5" mains).


Enjoy,
Len

[AJCoholic]

Thanks Len, thats very encouraging!

Andrew