Multiplex Sonic Liner
This is a kit that Multiplex has made for a
couple of years but for some reason decided to stop
importing them here in the US. I was lucky to find one at
my local hobby shop, Greenfield News & Hobby.
It is modeled after Boeing's
Sonic Cruiser first shown in 2001. With delta wings
and flying just short of the speed of sound at Mach
0.95-0.98 (about 1010 km/h or 627 mph at altitude),
the Sonic Cruiser promised 15-20% faster speed than
conventional aircraft without the noise pollution
caused by the sonic boom from supersonic travel. The
aircraft would have flown at altitudes in excess of
40,000 ft (12,000 m), and would have possessed a range
somewhere between 6,000 nautical miles (11,000 km) and
10,000 nautical miles (19,000 km). Boeing estimated
the Sonic Cruiser's fuel efficiency to be comparable
to current wide body twin-engine airliners. In the
end, most airlines favored lower operating costs over
a marginal increase in speed, and the project did not
attract the interest Boeing had been hoping for. The
Sonic Cruiser project was finally abandoned by
December 2002, in favor of the slower but more
fuel-efficient 7E7 (later renamed
Boeing 787 Dreamliner). No orders
were made for the Sonic Cruiser. Much of the research
from the Sonic Cruiser was applied to the 787,
including carbon fiber reinforced plastic for the
fuselage and wings, and bleedless engines.
The Sonic Liner is made of
resilient Elapor and with its Delta wing has a forward
positioned stabilizer/elevator. It's a big plane for a
foamie. It has a 47.3 inch wing span and is 51.2 inches
long. The wings come off to make it easy to transport. It
also comes with 2 speed 400 motors. I used an 1800 mAh LiPo
battery and 25 amp ESC and it flies nice. Hand launches are
easy and most of the time it can be flown at half throttle.
It takes just a couple of evenings to build unless you go
ahead and paint it like I did. I have friends that work at
Midwest Airlines so I did it in their colors. And yes,
those are seats out of one of Midwest's MD-80s. If you can
find one of these kits grab it. If you have one already,
have fun. See it fly below.
