Hawker Hunter EDF Kit WestWing

Hawker Hunter EDFThis model in the West Wings range re-creates the most famous British jet fighter of them all. The Hawker Hunter is arguably one of the most attractive jets ever built and we ve gone to great lengths to retain that character in our kit. We have tried to keep the design as close to scale as possible, with the only deviations being made on the basis of necessity.

The design of the fuselage looks complex at first glance, but is actually very simple and quick to build. The fuselage formers are made from 2mm birch ply and are accurately cut on our CNC machine to give strength where required and reduced weight where possible, and because of their rigidity, thinness and weight saving cutouts, the building process is less prone to mishaps. The forward Vac-Formed inlet ducts are easy to install and have been carefully designed to provide maximum performance with the minimum of drag. We spent a lot of time getting this area right!! The inlets are of course over-scale in size, but only as much as is necessary to feed the fan with the correct amount of air. Only the purists are likely to know!! The fuselage is sheeted in 1.5mm (1/16th) balsa and is surprisingly easy and quick to do.

Wings are conventional in construction and the section chosen is particularly suited to this scale plan-form and the projected flight envelope. The characteristic sawtooth leading edge is incorporated and the scale anhedral helps prevent Dutch Rolling in this swept wing design. A small amount of washout is also built in for low speed stability.

The tail area is very slightly over scale, as a result of flight-testing, yet is not obvious to the eye. The fin has a simple built-up structure and is amazingly rigid when assembled.

For the scale-orientated modeller, we ve included vacuum formings for the air brake and forward cannon shell clip collectors. The choice of colour schemes is the standard camouflage of 74 Sqn RAF and a full set of decals are supplied. The outlet nozzle is for the non brake-chute version but could be easily modified.

Flight performance can be sedate if you use a good ferrite motor (Speed 480 Race etc) and 8 cells (Sanyo CP1700 s recommended), right up to ballistic with a brushless motor like the Kontronik Fun 480/33 and 10 cells. A good compromise we have found is the Irvine Cobalt 480 9-turn and 10 x KAN2000 Ni-mh cells (4/5SC Size). We used this in our prototype and found it to be very good in combination with a Jeti 030 speed controller. Our prototype used the Wemotec 480 Mini Fan but the Wattage Fan unit can also be used and is catered for in the kit. The battery pack is significant in the overall weight of the model and you should make a careful choice, bearing in mind capacity, cell size/weight and ability to deliver high current. The design will accommodate a wide variety of cell types by positioning the pack accordingly. We recommend the latest 4/5SC size cells as a good starting point, the number being dictated by the requirements of the motor/speed controller. Please bear in mind that this model is designed to be bungee launched and it s static thrust will be insufficient to even attempt hand launching unless using the top end motor/cell combination.

You will need three small servos (around 9g), two of which, should be no more than 9mm thick. The wing thickness will only accommodate servos of this size but there are many to choose from in this category at reasonable prices. We used Sanwa SX-091 s, which worked well. The receiver is less important but the lighter the better. She can be flown on three or four channels. Four channel versions allow fine tuning of the ailerons by mixing two channels together but this is not really necessary.

Flight characteristics are similar to many high-performance, high load models on the market today. Not a beginners model, but fine for the moderately experienced pilot that is used to fast, small models. It s a sleek design and bleeding the speed off for landing requires a reasonably long approach at low level. Like all swept-wing, jet style models, high G low speed turns should be avoided. Just fly her like a jet in wide sweeping manoeuvres and you ll be rewarded with a stunning performance. Everybody that has seen her fly seems to love her.

If you re looking for a great EDF model (maybe your first), then the West Wings Hawker Hunter is a perfect choice.