Eastbourne SPEED 400 Electric

I love airplanes from the early days of aviation and the Eastbourne Monoplane is a great example. It has a flying weight of 20 oz. with 321 sq. in. of wing area. That makes the wing loading about 9 oz./sq. ft., so it can be flown very slowly for a true scale appearance. It s a blast to fly low and slow and the landings are easy. Just chop the throttle and listen to the flying wires sing. Touch the up elevator and wheel it on or try a 3-point landing. I detailed mine with instruments, pilot, full flying wires, spoke wheels from Maketova Kola in the Czech Republic, and a lot of detail in the dummy motor. I'm 63 and I like things to happen slowly. This plane fits the bill. Inexpensive, easy and fun to build, very scale looks, great flyer; what more could you want?

I love airplanes from the early days of aviation. Many of them are very stable and this little monoplane is one. It's an easy build for intermediate level skills. I detailed mine with instruments, flying wires, and spoke wheels from Maketova Kola, from the Czech Republic. I put lots of detail into the dummy motor. I used Coverlite cream covering. The Eastbourne monoplane can be flown indoors or outside with zero or a very light breeze. With 20 ounce flying weight and 321 sq. in. of wing area, it has a wing loading of about 9 oz./sq. ft. It can be flown very slowly for a very nice scale appearance. Inexpensive, very scale looks, great flyer, fun to build; what more could you want?

It’s been a long time since I built a balsa model airplane kit, especially one with die-cut instead of laser cut parts. Despite the multitude of beautiful ARF’s available on the market, I still enjoy spending a few weeks building models the ‘old-fashioned’ way. The Eastbourne SPEED 400 Electric was exactly what I needed to have a little building fun. Parts needed to be adjusted, cut or sanded sometimes to fit properly, but eventually I framed-up this model. Instead of a Speed 400 geared motor system, I mounted an Astro-Flite geared 010 brushless motor and used a 3-cell 1320mah lipo battery pack. I covered the model with synthetic cream-colored tissue, and painted forward sections of the fuselage to simulate wood and aluminum. I carefully built the dummy engine and painted it, and then I scratch-built spoked wheels to match the style of the plane. I also modified a Williams Bros. pilot figure to have a mustache, bushy eyebrows, a leather cap and goggles. The finished plane was gorgeous, with a terrific early 20th century look and style. It was very light, and only flown in calm weather. The model is so stable, that it has since been flown at indoor funflies.

Because of the amount of skill and work necessary, I wouldn’t recommend this model to a beginner, but if you’ve been in this hobby for a while, and have the desire to broaden your skills, this kit can be transformed into a beautiful scale model with ‘tons’ of character. It flies well to boot!