Hangar 9 46% Ultimate - Flight Performance

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Hangar 9 Ultimate - Flight Performance

FLIGHT PERFORMANCE

The 10-300 is a pleasure to taxi and has wonderful ground-handling characteristics. It turns smoothly in both directions with immediate and predictable response. The wide and long placement of its landing gear prevents any tendency to nose over or ground-loop. This is no doubt because of the model's very large rudder and its spring-loaded tailwheel assembly.

Takeoff and landing
The first takeoff was so easy that I silently chuckled at how easily this giant left the ground! The ground run was straight down the centerline of the grass runway, and very little rudder coaxing was required to maintain a straight-as-an-arrow track. The Ultimate is simply a joy on takeoffs.

Landings are almost as easy as takeoffs, and for such a large airplane, it lands very slowly with positive pitch and roll control all the way to the touchdown. I noticed that ground effect allows the Ultimate to easily hold a 3-point attitude for a very long time and helps it settle in for a picture-perfect landing. I don't mean to be repetitive, but this model really is very easy and gentle to get on and off the ground!

Slow-speed characteristics
As with all big biplanes, the model's large wing area provides a very comfortable wing loading, so you don't have to be afraid of slowing the model down (within reason!). When you ask the model to stall, it does so; it just shudders and then breaks straight ahead if the wings are kept level during the entry. Control remains positive right up to the break. When you release up-elevator and add a little power, it flies out of the stall with little effort.

High-speed characteristics
At full power, the Ultimate is a very impressive beast! It retains its positive control feel and has unlimited vertical climb. Control feel is solid and isn't overly sensitive. For normal flying, 1/2 to 3/4 throttle is all that's needed; save full-bore for takeoffs and vertical lines!

Aerobatics
This is the fun part, and it's what the Ultimate was designed for. I started feeling out the airplane by performing both left and right rolls. The model stays dead-on at a level altitude and responds very quickly and crisply; no elevator correction is needed. I like very large, round loops, and the Ultimate has so much power that you can fly the maneuver as large as you like. I prefer to do loops with a little inverted "float" across the top so that I can adjust the line a bit for the back half of the maneuver. Loops are a snap.

Speaking of snaps, the model executes snap rolls in a heartbeat! Whether you do them at the top of a loop, from straight-and-level flight, when going straight up and down, or even on 45- degree up-lines, they feel very nice and are completely predictable.

Mike McConville has plenty of pointers in the instruction booklet for maneuvers such as torque rolls, blenders and other wild 3D stuff, so if you are up for it, this machine is more than capable of performing them with ease. I'm just a sport-aerobatics flier who loves big biplanes, so I'll have to work my way up to the wilder side. In the hands of an experienced pilot, the 46% TOC Ultimate 10-300 can easily do anything asked of it and will do it with authority! Now that I have this incredible performer in my hangar, I can't wait to go back to the flying field!

-Sal Manganaro

THE MAN BEHIND THE MACHINE

Mike McConville shows off the prototype 46% TOC Ultimate 10-300.

The Hangar 9 TOC 46% Ultimate biplane is a standoff-scale version of the "10 dash 300" Ultimate biplane. It started as Mike McConville's own design for his use in the 1993 Tournament of Champions (TOC) competition. Developed entirely with AutoCAD, Mike designed his airplane to take advantage of the extra bonus points TOC awarded for flying a really big airplane and a biplane! The original model used thin wings and was fully rigged with flying and landing wires between the wings. Further design study, however, showed that the model would produce less drag if a thicker airfoil was used without the rigging wires. The thicker wing would house the internal wing tubes, and without the many wire attachments, the model's field setup was greatly simplified. The Hangar 9 production model uses the thicker airfoil design.

The Ultimate uses tried-and-true lite-ply, plywood and balsa-covered foam for most of its construction, and its wings are completely built up of balsa lite-ply and plywood. The removable tail surfaces are made with balsa-covered foam and have external wire bracing. Mike chose a NACA 0012, 12-percent-thickness airfoil and stretched the fuselage length a little. He enlarged the stabilizer 10 percent and lowered the top wing 10 percent as well.

Although most biplanes are viewed as having a disadvantage in aerobatic competition, Mike thinks that the Ultimate's "wow" factor and its really big, strong rudder make it worth considering! Mike tells us that in competition, you have to fly to its advantages and avoid performing the maneuvers it doesn't do as well as the monoplanes do. Although it doesn't turn as effortlessly as a monoplane, it does do incredible 3D high-angle-of-attack maneuvers. In knife-edge flight, the Ultimate needs almost no top rudder, and with its "positive" engine thrust line, it does wonderfully straight up-lines! When you neutralize the elevator stick, the model just keeps on going straight up; it doesn't try to level off or fly out of the up-line! Pitch coupling is almost nonexistent, and roll coupling is only very slight and requires less than 10-percent mix to dial out. It's just a very easy airplane to set up and fly. That's why it is Hangar 9's main showpiece!

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