BEAST - $25,000 F/A-18 Hornet Remote Control Fighter Jet in Action

You're about to see this thing fly. Alright Levi, big crowd behind us. Hey guys, Bea Snappy here. I'm here with Levi and he's got this amazing F-18 Hornet. G'day Levi. How are you mate? Before we see it fly, can we see some of the key features? Absolutely. There's a few electronics here in the nose. Can you tell us a bit about these? This screen here, this is the brain of the flight control surfaces like the elevators, flaps, rudders. These two switches here, one is for the lights. So it also activates the landing light which is disabled when I switch the landing gear to go up. So around this side, we've got the screen for the turbines. That tells me all the things like RPM, exhaust gas temperature which will be about 650 degrees. And also these are the onboard air systems. All of the landing gear is driven by air. It's a King Tech 260, so it's actually a single turbine that's going into a dual or bifurcated pipe. Tell us about the flight controls for this aircraft. We've got trailing edge flaps at the back here, so they come down for landing. And if you also look here at the rudders, while I do that, see how the rudders turn in? Yeah. That is to get the nose up like the real jet because the landing gear has a rearward centre of gravity. So it's hard to get the aeroplane to rotate. So by doing this, it creates drag on these top fins which lifts the nose which helps for a smooth rotation. The rudders, even though they're canted in, they still operate as rudders. In terms of roll, it's a mixture of what we call tailerons or elevons and ailerons on the wingtips. So it just needs that extra two control surfaces for slow speed flight. So has this model got speed brakes? Yes, it does. So the speed brake on this classic Hornet is mounted between the tail here. And now Levi's going to show us how the landing gear works. So the gear goes up followed by the gear doors closing. And in reverse. There's a lot of weight here. It's about 24.5 kilos dry and then it's got 6 kilos worth of fuel or 6 litres of fuel. So that takes it up over 30. What is the top speed on this? I would say around 300 kilometres an hour. Wow. Here's the comparison from the model to the real size. $25,000 Aussie for this model and $45 million for the big guy. You're about to see this thing fly. So I'm just pumping the air system up. You want to do that as the last thing just to ensure it's completely full and pressurised to about 100 psi. There's also a fire extinguisher on standby. Here it goes. So what's the take-off distance, Levi? Probably 100 metres. Sounds amazing. And here it comes. Here we go. He's coming into the landing. Oh, butter. Alright, Levi. Big crowd behind us. You absolutely nailed the landing. Thanks, buddy. You can have a good flight, but if the landing's no good, then that's what they remember. Isn't that a terminology? You buttered that landing? Absolutely. Yeah. Where do people find more about you if they'd like to see it fly? Well, we've got a club. It's called Sky Aces RC. So if you search Sky Aces RC, you'll find us on Facebook. And we put all the content from our flying days on that page as well. Thanks, Levi. Thanks for the show. No worries. Great to talk to you.