Have posted regarding this Flyingwing (my current fetish) some time back. Its finally here!! Not cheap, but so would be experience. I Would be waiting for unbiased/un sponsored review before putting the big bucks!!

Should be a treat for AP/FPV enthusiasts.


http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__20276__Darkwing_FPV_Drone_1727mm_Composite_ARF_.html

looks cool

That's one sinister looking wings. 

Waiting for your review on this one 

Black beauty..looks stunning......

take a look at this one..looks good..
http://www.bevrc.com/the-king-of-flyingwing-x8-white-epo-one-unit-only-per-customer-p-287.html

@ashJR7202 Wow!! what curves

BTW the hobbyking wing seems to be heavy (Dry Weight: 1400g)

ha yaar....really nice curves...and i think even bigger!!!!!

parcel size limitation for shipping... Only shipped through EMS

Has its own hassles. 

It would be unwise to compare EPO X8 and Composite DarkWing. Considering $199 for X8,even at $150, Darkwing is a steal....

The bad part about the DarkWing is that the combination of wings made of traditional sheeted balsa and no undercarriage means you need not just grass, but "clean" grass for landings. 

PS: "Clean" grass, meaning without sticks and thorns and anything like that.

An entire FRC buildup plane, including the Wing would require Grade 'S' Cloth and additional reinforcement of Carbon Fiber at load/stress bearing portion to keep the weight low. This would escalate the prices manifold (4x-5x).  Barring high end HLG/DLG/Jets, most of composite planes do have Balsa Buildup wing and Fiber Fuse/empennage. Most Chinese model makers use to cheaper grade of GF Cloths used in non airborne application, like storage tanks, canopy etc which are much heavier.

I have discusses the issues with Belly landing in the Hobbykings page itself (and came under attack). HK should have further reinforced the belly with logerons to distribute the impact on landing to the entire structure absorb. 
Looking as juicy and exotic, this plane do comes with a caveat. Thats why I would like the USD shoppers to test the waters and put the first hand report.

Foam wings, or foam wings covered with plastic or something (like that trainer plane from Thunder Tiger) may have been a better design choice

Foam wings core are good for smaller planes, or planes for which Wing loading is too low (AXN/Easy star). The inherent problem of foam wings is the structural strength (which is usually confused with Crash-resistance).
The CF Rods as wing joiners in a Foam wing cannot meet the structural strength of a Wooden Spar-Wing Ribs combo which are best structural design.
With a Fiber Fuse, which would account for 70% of the dry weight, a Foam wing is a no-no, that's why Balsa build up wing makes more sense. Not crash proof , but it would definitely give adequate support for all the maneuvers.

If you are looking for a Foam wing, rest of the structure like the fuse should also be Foam, or least balsa. BevRC's X8 is exactly that.

For an FPV plane, maneuvers should not be a big concern.  There are already models that use FG fuse and foam core wings, a quick search led me to this :

http://www.yellowaircraft.com/jets/stingray.htm  (most of their models are FG fuse with foam core wing design).

They seem to use sheeted balsa as the extra layer of protection for wings.

So it can be done, and there seems to be no significant design issue that cannot be tackled easily.

BTW, using something like Solartex would also be much better than plain covering on the Darkwing (in terms of landing damages).

Hey Ujjwaana....
thats great info yaar!!! thanks.....actually i am planning to build 50" Alula wing, my 1st such large plane. original is with no motor, soarer...but i am planning to make it powered one..... planning to keet structure as simple as possible.....KF2 with main wing with 5 mm biofoam cf reinforced, for KF2 may use 5 mm or 10 mm biofaom. planing to make it in 3 pieces for ease of transportation..... any suggestions i should keep in mind before i start!!!!

I am not aware of any good foamies  "sold" by HK other then AXN Floater.

I know about  a HK plane going down on maiden, had very deceiving looks, which was sent to a HK fan for free(with $90 Shipping!!!!!!!!! for a cheaper Foamy ARF)

I doubt quality of most of the Planes sold by HK.

An Indonesian flyer on our field has this one :

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__15302__YAK54_EPP_3D_Profile_KIT_35_4in_.html

Absolutely value for money, and pretty durable.  He had to reinforce the motor mount a bit with some balsa sticks and hotglue after one of the crashes, but the plane flies great and is pretty rigid.  Will post pics next week.

The Techone models rebranded by HK are sort of flimsy, as compared to these full foam fuse ones.

I would discourage you to push Bio Foam till 50". for most practical aspects Bio foam planes should be restricted to 36-40", specially for flying wing, unless you are doing such proof of concept. Reinforcements does not scale up for bigger bird.
I made a 32" WS of my smaller KESL (KFM4 too). Much well behaved, but the strength is almost at the bleeding edge.
http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/56-kesl-flywing-build-thread/
No build log on forum, but I can send you the pics for the improvements I made in the motor mount.

VFM ? at $65 + Customs/shipping blues ? I bought a beautiful **Balsa** EP Profile Katana from RCdhamaka for Rs 2600+. Excellent build quality, and looks much real... Sadly RCD does not put the pic on their Site.. I can post the pics for forum members so that they may pre-order.

RCD link:
http://www.rcdhamaka.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=3_46&products_id=882

alternative Pic of the plane (though the pic does not do justice)
http://onestoprcworld.blogspot.in/2010/06/katana-ep-extreme-3d-flight-4-channel.html

I think its time we start give credit to LHS for bringing the prices to be much reasonable over these 1-2 years... Volume, forum like these and the will of the sellers all deserve the credit.

Yes Ujjwaana, you are correct, I was thinking of starting a "Heads Up, I saw a bargain here" thread on this forum

Wow ! What an apples to oranges comparison just because "I hate anything Hobbyking"

Akshay commented that only AXN is good, and I have seen someone practically learn flying on this profile YAK model.  I have seen it take multiple crashes, including an inadvertent drop from his hands from head height, on to solid ground/road (no loose sand), that too tail first.  Absolutely nothing happened to it.  Try the same with a balsa model.

If you want to compare this plane, at least compare it to something like the Hacker Zoom Zoom or one of the www.Telink.eu full profile fuse models, or something along those lines, and see how expensive they are. I have had both of these models, and I know how much I paid for them as compared to this one from HobbyKing I am sure there are other chinese knock offs like this one for similar price as HK. I only expressed what I see every week on our field, so that someone can take advantage of the value this model offers.  If you absolutely have to discredit HobbyKing and help LHSes (the latter part which I wholly support), please at least do an apples to apples comparison, and then guide LHSes into bringing such models in an more affordable manner into India.

The model from RCDhamaka is great value for money, but that is a completely different class of airplanes. I hope the full EPO/EPP foam fuse planes are in stock locally at the earliest. Just like talking about AXN caused Shikra to happen !

I thought I was comparing with this

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/uh_viewItem.asp?idProduct=15420

not profile foamies,

Today is V-Day and love is in the air, isn't IA Dada.

More Wow

Please re-read your own post, Reply #15. It said "nothing other than AXN is good", and I posted a model from my routine experience, which happened to be a profile foamy. In short, any HK model is fair game at this point !

Glad to prolong this discussion, we all are making more customers for HobbyKing   And also giving a few pointers to LHSes on the way !

And for the record... a large number of HK planes are just crap. But we should be bold enough to state which are better and stand by our beliefs

I think reference of crash at our field is neglected, isn't it.

Please read by above post... in case plain English does not register the fact that no one here said every plane from HK is solid gold !

I do love the fact that I sort of started the AXN mania : http://www.rcindia.org/electric-planes/axn-floater-clouds-fly-from-hobbycity/

It seems to have become the primary trainer model in our country now.  Who knows, many people may try the Yak also... and the anti-HK brigade is not going to sleep well on this V-day