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.
