For Horizon Hobby Product Development!

[atv223]

As someone else mentioned, there is no such thing as "unbreakable" plastic. The reality is that they probably didn't take a lot of time selecting what plastic to use. They likely just use whatever they were used to designing with and molding with from where there experience came. My guess is they employ engineers with aerospace experience, likely mechanical engineers and electronics engineers. Most of there development goes into the the electronics and mechanical design. Material selection is more likely an after thought if its considered at all. Trust me, I am a Materials Engineer and most people don't even know what it means. I see mechanical engineers talk about plastic like its all the same. I am fairly certain the frames and parts are made out of polystyrene, the same stuff plastic forks and knives are made of. Maybe, HIPS, high impact polystyrene, which is a little better but not really and engineering grade of plastic.

[MilitaryMachinist]

I have been checking the weights... And looking after a couple of weeks of flying the helicopter... I have not replaced a single thing on the helicopter made from the new plastics.... Not a blade, not a blade grip, the swash plate, gear... not even a skid... Nothing has broken after flying it for a month. The helicopter is lighter, has a higher head speed, more power, is more responsive, and I havn't had to clean or replace a servo after over 30 crashes. Two of them in to the side of a brick house. And a couple of them tumbling across concrete... Yet I haven't had to replace a part. Not even the CF tail boom on this new helicopter.... Just saying my motor is giving out before the helicopters plastic parts are starting to wear down...

[zadaw]

Originally Posted by MilitaryMachinist

canopy stomp test:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RmNFmjpB4k

I am rather surprised this. There is no way the V120D02S is as durable as that for the MCPx. I am wondering whether different versions of canopies exist for the V120D02S. Similarly, the skids on the V120D02S are no where as durable as those for the MCPx

[newhelicrasher]

What surprises me is why manufacturers dont take clues from the progress made in other rc activities. An example is the arms on off road rc cars....the stock ones break all the time but there is an aftermarket company called rpm that makes arms ball cups etc from their own blend of plastic that is pretty much indestructible....if they copied or had rpm make the plastic heli parts our problems would be solved.....and they come in blue and yellow as a side benefit....this aspect of r&d seems lacking on the heli side but there have been great advancement on the rc car side.....its odd to me there is no cross over or sharing of info.

[litehawkdown]

Originally Posted by newhelicrasher

What surprises me is why manufacturers dont take clues from the progress made in other rc activities. An example is the arms on off road rc cars....the stock ones break all the time but there is an aftermarket company called rpm that makes arms ball cups etc from their own blend of plastic that is pretty much indestructible....if they copied or had rpm make the plastic heli parts our problems would be solved.....and they come in blue and yellow as a side benefit....this aspect of r&d seems lacking on the heli side but there have been great advancement on the rc car side.....its odd to me there is no cross over or sharing of info.

+1 on that I wish I could get some RPM upgrades for my heli. That is indestructible!

[Thalios]

Yep, got them on my Traxxas Rustler and my Traxxas E-Revo Brushless and even if I hit a burb at 60mph, they take the hit!

[newhelicrasher]

Yeah RPM has only been making these parts out of this material for 25+ years with great results. Maybe some heli manufacturer will catch on in another 25 years or so. It would also be cool if RPM themselves studied the possibility of doing aftermarket heli parts to expand their line.

[jaydekay]

Originally Posted by burnoutboy

$0.35 combs have been unbreakable since the 80's... what's the problem here??? I'm about to start melting combs down and molding my own landing skids LMAO.

Hard enought to comb knotty hair, flexible enough to bend in half without breaking, durable enough to retake their shape. Serious question. Why arent skids/blades/frames/links made out of the same stuff?

Haha +1 bro!

[jaydekay]

Originally Posted by atv223

I was looking at the skids the other day wondering what I would make them out of given the option of any plastic. It's a tough call given the the need to be thin, somewhat stiff and need to really flex at a high rate without breaking. I would probably pick a relatively hard thermoplastic elastomer like a 90A polyurethane or 40D polyester copolymer. But that's a guess.

Just speaking of the mCP X - I think they could have done a better job on the skids for sure.

They need to do 2 'simple' things while staying light enough and not looking terrible...

1. Hold a ~45g heli upright
2. Be very flexible/durable

They fail on #2, and that makes #1 fail.

I'm happy with HH as of late, but this is a fail (for consumers) and a win for them (corp) as far as parts go.

But in the end, people get ticked about stuff like this and it hurts the corps reputation. As such, I think they should have went further on the durability of these skids.

Great reputations are very hard to earn, and very easy to lose.

[Mojappa]

RPM won't invest in manufacturing something unless it's extremely popular and widely sold, helis have not met that requirement yet. Also there is a lot of flex in RPM parts and in my experience screws could pull out of the Revo arms easily, that much flex wouldn't work with most heli parts. Also consider that you need some mechanical fuses to protect further damage from being incurred. When I fabricated my RC crawler (before every company made a RTR) I used plastic stampede shafts with metal for the rest of the driveline so if something was over torqued the shafts would take it and snap if need be, the shafts were much easier to replace than diff gears. Also some compounds of plastic are patented so there is a possibility that other companies can't use what RPm uses and production costs will always rule the day, especially with Blade. Doing extensive research of exotic plastic isn't cheap and producing parts from them is also not cheap not to mention that it severely cuts into parts sales which is the bread and butter of the RC industry.