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The original 2019 article did not have any RC options at the time that I could find through normal search sources. Fast forward to 2025 and Outerzone recently published a 60″ span PL-12 by Frank Marcie
Was able to get a bunch of 8mm tapes out of storage and found this video from the late 1990’s of a Bird of time glide with an engine pod on wheels. granted the landing gear setup could have been way better but it did fly decent.
While a normal Mooney M20 would be quite a bland aircraft for the list, this one is different. Rather than the “common” engine options this was spiced up with a with a specialty engine from Porsche
Porsche famous for its flat 6 configuration engines spanning decades of production took on a new engine, directly intended at the general aviation market with the PFM 3200. Being developed in the mid 80’s. A few airframes where tried out but the Mooney M20L was the only one with a small production run of 41 units in 1988-1989. Small by car numbers but common in the GA industry. Porsche ran into significant financial troubles in the late 80’s and exited the GA powerplant industry.
I’ve seen one a few times at KAPA centennial before, with its unique pointed nose.
I got to fly a standard issue Mooney once, they where extremely cramped inside but had stunning performance.
Excessive general aviation law suits of the late 80’s / early 90’s also did not help. Still one what have wondered what could have happened if conditions where more favorable.
Working on Corvair auto to aero engine conversions for WW back in the 2000’s I was amazed at how much push back there is in aviation community for anything Auto going into Aero. Take the identification stickers off the M20 shown in this article to the naysayers and they would likely not have a clue the engines genesis was automotive based. Particularly if you said it was a standard, un modified certified Mooney model.
Quite a few YouTube Videos
With 41 units produced one may come up for sale from time to time but would take a real die hard to take the project on as the PFM 3200 was mostly unique part’s requiring one off custom builds to keep it flying beyond basic M20 airframe hardware.
No true M20 plan hits on outerzone for an RC option.
An interesting find the D-1 can be quite the rare site with only 12 built and 9 still registered as of 2009. It was designed by John Thorp famous for being the lead on the preliminary design team for the T-16 / PA-28 for Piper and the Thorp T-18 kit-plane. The prototype was originally powered by O-200 engines but where later upgraded to more powerful IO-320′s.
It’s quite the good looking twin but due to many factors it was not produced in mass.
YouTube videos are very limited, here are a few I found:
This type of Auto Gyro with a 2 blade main rotor and fairly slim profile makes it easy to transport and store in a trailer. The slow flight speeds can open up all kinds of flight adventures.
For the US market see https://elaaviation-us.com/ for details, looks like they are based out of Okeechobee FL
The composites work on this bird was truly impressive and the metallic green color I still remember to this day.
The tandem cockpit was quite ergonomic
impressive looking tail feathers
2 Blade main mast
Show special price and build sheet, good thing I took this photo to get the name of the aircraft.
Quite a few YouTube videos on the 10 Eclipse:
I could find no RC options for the 10 Eclipse, in fact RC auto gyros are very rare, I built a scratch built one around 20 years ago, here it is next to my Century 30 hawk RC Helicopter, It flew well but needed a better rotor system for more durability.
Tired of having drinks spill and make a huge mess in your 1st gen Ford Super Duty Truck (F-250, F-350, 1999 – 2004) This cup holder upgrade from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4fefEDm is a plug and play replacement.
There are some tips and tricks to get the old track out and the new one in shown in the video.
By now most of us know Planeprint and Eclipson but I just found a 3rd option for highly vetted & detailed 3D printed aircraft files in a payware option.
Flightory offers several UAV / FPV dedicated options including the stingray shown in the picture above, a flying wing with an intergraded quad copter VTOL option.
Check it out in action:
There YouTube channel has a good collection of how 2 and demo videos
The J-3 Kitten is a cub inspired US Ultralight with an empty weight of under 254 Lbs. It features a single seat and tube and fabric construction. First Flight was in 1986.
Power comes from a Rotax 277 / 28 hp or similar power.
Gould Aero 