Guillow's Spirit of St. Louis • RC Conversion build

The Spirit of St. Louis, the iconic aircraft piloted by Charles Lindbergh alone across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927.
This is a highly modified RC conversion build, of the Guillow’s Spirit of St. Louis balsa model kit. I found this at my local hobby store and thought it would make a good customization for radio control.This particular version of the kit is die cut balsa which made it a bit tricky to assemble at times because I wasn’t sure of the accuracy of some of the notch placements and depths. I think this kit would really benefit from laser cutting. The fake engine cylinder placement on the cowling maybe could have been marked better as well.
Overall it was a bit more involved than I had anticipated, I think because I thought it would be a bit larger than it turned out. Finding space to squeeze in the electronics was more challenging than expected.
I strengthened the framing to hold the heavier weight and covering. I used MonoKote aluminum colour and sprayed over it with clear matt finish.
Over all, another fun and challenging build. It’s always interesting and surprising to learn the details and true stories behind these types of historic aircraft.
There is a maiden flight video of this model on my channel.

Motor: A2212/10T 1400KV
Speed Control: 30A
Receiver: FlySky 6 channel
Battery: 800 mAh 25C 11.1V 3S1P
Servos: 3X 9g micro
Prop: 8 inch EP-8060
Weight including 70g battery is 450g


Triumphant Return by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...
Artist: http://audionautix.com/