Spotted this at an Air Show yesterday and managed to get one photo before my xx&88%^$$## digital camera ran out of batteries.

Air show publicity claimed it to be the World's largest radio-controlled model plane.   Personally I think that it was a practical joke on the crowds despite a guy standing out front pointing a radio-control unit at it.  A second person flew inside it but it was stated that he didn't fly and was only along for the ride - yeah right.

Anyway, the plane had about a 15 foot wing span, and a similar fuselage length.   It was powered with a 65 HP Rotax engine and is classified as a micro-light (at least here in New Zealand.)

It flew like a dream, about 130 knots, and from the ground just looked like a real Spitfire.

Feature of the day for me were demo's from a beautifully restored Catalina Flying Boat.

The weird looking shape behind is a small amphibian.

Nice one Bazza, do you have any more info about this?

Mark

i think it's the SA 180 Silence, a small high-tech ultralight airplane which is -in the opinion of the guy from "fliegerrevue"- very much fun to fly. it's powered by a four-piston jabiru-engine (59kw) and its weight is just about 350kg! this gives her a top speed of about 250kph and a maximum flight level of 4500m. it can resist up to +6Gs and -4Gs.  i don't know anything about the price,but it seems to be quite cheaply for such a beautiful high-tech aircraft.

any gmax guys in here who have a bit of free time? *hint,hint*

-edit: oh,sorry. the plane on bazza's pic ain't the "silence",but it looks very similar to it. however,this is the real "silence":


and this is the official site:
http://www.silence-flugzeugbau.de/

Bazza. I'm sure you're right & that this was a joke. It reminds me of the trick by the "crazy pilots" in the old days when they used to pick out someone from the crowd for a flight. Then the "instructor" got out to fix something & the plane took off without him. I've seen similar things quite recently at various displays. I'm sure it would be illegal for a R/C aircraft to carry a passenger. LOL

I rather like the look of Silent's "SA 180 Silence" (is that a coincindence or what? ).
Despite what I've said about replica Spits I wouldn't mind one of those myself. 8)

If any of you guys have a spare one of those lying around that you don't want...

Will

That's the one, quite a neat piece of engineering.  There were three amphibians at the show, two like this one and one with a "pusher prop.", that's not counting the Catalina.

Where was this shot taken Rifleman ?

Great stuff.     Why I asked about the location is it looked familiar however, I've never been there.  On a number of occasions I have been told that your part of the world is very similar to New Zealand where I am, and the background could be anywhere over here.