Team JR member and leading electric plane designer George Hicks flying his latest creation - the E-flite Tensor 4D. 
The side force generators (SFG) are simply vertically oriented wings that allow the airplane to better fly on its side (commonly referred to as knife-edge flight) in a similar fashion to how an airplane flies using its wings. This additional side area has a much higher aspect ratio than the fuselage, thus allowing it to generate lift at low angles of sideslip. From a pilot's point of view, this means that less rudder deflection is required in rolling maneuvers, and knife-edge flight is slow and easy to control. Aerobatic models without SFG have to either fly very fast or at large sideslip angles to produce enough lift to balance the airplane's weight. They also rely heavily on the propeller's vertical thrust component to hold the airplane up. With the SFG, one can fly in knife-edge at very low sideslip angles at speeds comparable to the standard configurations at very high sideslip angles. The lower sideslip angles also reduce the roll and pitch coupling, which makes the airplane easier to control. Apart from simple knife-edge flight, an airplane equipped with SFG can now do virtually everything on its side that it does with the wing. Knife-edge loops are much easier, because the SFG can generate enough force to where the pilot knows that he can control the exit altitude, whereas on the typical configuration, you must point the thrust upward or cheat by rolling slightly just to complete a knife-edge loop in a reasonable radius. Basically, with the SFG's precision, knife-edge flight is possible.
| 
I
want a quote on how much freight it will cost to send items to me.
Download E-Flite Tensor 4D Manual
View Tensor 4D Review
