The A4 Skyhawk Project from the Little Jet Company

In this short series of posts Alex,  from The Little Jet Company, will take you through the construction of his latest project, an A4 Skyhawk.

Progress will be slow as I have some important customer projects to do, but it should move along nicely.

This kit is the prototype pre-production model that Skymaster and a number of other builders have started to put together. More needs to be done, or re-done, but I’m impressed with the detail and think it should make a great addition for next years fleet.

The model weighs 20lbs. Add 4lbs of electrics,  3.5lbs of turbine and ancillaries, 7lbs of fuel and we’re talking 34.5lbs wet.  I’m hoping a Merlin 140 will work as this gives around 33lbs of thrust here in the UK. This is more than its rated for  but I’m finding Gasper, at Jets Munt, is conservative in his specs. This makes a change for a manufacturer.  If it needs more of a push then a Jetcat 180RX will be used but this is over a pound heavier. My hope is that keeping it light will work better.

I spent an evening cleaning the model with meths and degreaser as it was covered in red over-spray from somewhere.  I like to do this as it does show up the areas that need attention and in this case there are five or six small crush marks and hanger rash that needs sorting before anything goes in it.

More of this project to come – watch this space!