My Build of Mikey’s RC F22 Raptor

I’ve stumbled across www.mikeysrc.com some time ago when I was searching for a cheap RC helicopter. On his website he also offers a bunch of free PDF plans for different easy to build RC planes. The EDF powered F22 Raptor instantly caught my eye. Not only is it very easy to build but also very cool looking 😉

After a long time waiting for the electronic to arrive from Hong Kong I’ve finally finished my build of Mikey’s RC F22 Raptor…

First of all here are the electronics I used. I got them all from different E-Bay sellers for a total of about €40 including shipping from Hong Kong.

test
The electronics
  • 64mm EDF with 4500KV Brushless Motor
  • 30A Brushless Speedcontroller
  • 2x 9g servos
  • V-Tail Mixer (as my 4ch radio can’t do any mixing)
  • 6channel 35MHz Receiver
  • 1500mAh 25C LiPo Battery

As every PDF build this build started with downloading and printing the PDF 😉 Here’s the link to it: http://mikeysrc.com/F22-Raptor.html. After having cut and taped together all the pages I cut out all the parts and layed them onto my foam board. Small pieces of tape help to keep them in place while copying their shapes to the foam board.

Layout
Layout all the parts from the PDF

The next step is to cut out the parts from the foam board. Take your time for this step in order to get nice and clean edges.

Parts
All the cut out parts

As you can see I’ve already cut off the ailerons and elevators of the plane’s body. So the next step is to make the hinges for those.

Hindges Top
Hinges viewed from the top
Hindges Bottom
Hinges viewed from the bottom

I’ve cut an approximately 45° bevel on each of the 4 control surfaces and the F22’s body. That way the control surface will still be able to move all the way up and down after the hinge tape gets applied. I’ve put the tape for the hinges on the top. So obviously the relief cuts must be done on the bottom side of the control surfaces and the body.

Cut EDF hole
Cut out the hole for the EDF

After cutting out the hole for the EDF it’s now time to glue it all together. I start with the bottom pieces first.

Bottom fusalage
Glued on the bottom nose piece
Bottom fuselage
Glued on the bottom fuselage

On the PDF plan you’ll find two lines that show you where to glue the bottom fuselage pieces. I’ve transfer that lines from the plan to my foam board and glued the pieces there. But you need to glue them in a certain angle to the plane’s body. I used the height of the rear end of the nose piece as a guide. I’ve put the bottom fuselage pieces on the line transferred from the plan and angled each piece until it’s height was about the same as the height of the rear end of the bottom nose piece.

Added the ducted fan bash guard
Added the ducted fan bash guard

When I tried to glue the ducted fan bash guard to the bottom fuselage pieces I found that it was to wide. So I just trimmed it to fit between the two bottom fuselage pieces.

Added Tail Fins
Added tail fins

Now that the bottom of the F22 is finished adding the tail fins is up next. The plan includes a template that helps you the find the correct angle when gluing them on. I also decided to cut an angle on bottom edge of each fin. That way the fin has more contact to the body and the glue should hold much better.

barbecue skewers
Glued on the barbecue skewers
barbecue skewers
Added tape on top of the barbecue skewers

The barbecue skewers will add more stiffness to the wing. They should also create an airfoil shape of the wing and therefore hopefully create more lift. The exact location is also marked on the plan. Just transfer the line from the plan to the body as you did for the bottom fuselage pieces.

Please note that I did not yet glue the top nose piece onto the body. There reason for this is, that I don’t yet know where the battery hole needs to be cut in order to meet the center of gravity as marked on the plan. After I’ve installed all the electronics I’ll determine where to put the battery. Then I’ll know where to cut out the hole off the top nose piece.

servo straps
Servo Straps

After I had cut out the servo straps I realized that my servos where a few millimeters smaller than the hole from the plan. So I decided to redo them with a hole that is just as large as my servo casings are. That way I don’t have to use a lot of glue to keep the servos in place.

Servo setup
Servo setup

There is no hint on the plan where to put the servos. I’ve tried different positions and I I think the best place for them would be one or two centimeters in front of the aileron hinge. The exact location depends very much on how long your control rods are. I’ve started with the one for the aileron control surface. If you attach it to the aileron control horn and the servo, you automatically get the length needed for the push-rod to the elevator.

Aileron and elevator pushrods
Aileron and elevator push rods

Finding the right servo location and the correct push rod length took me a while. But when both pushrods are attatched to the servo and their control horns at servo center position both control surfaced sould be leveled.

After the servos are setup the rest is just a matter of a few minutes. I installed the EDF unit and attached the speed controller. Then I connected the servos and the speed controller to the receiver, and in my case I also had to connect the V-Tail mixer.

Finally I put the battery onto the nose of the F22’s body and moved it around until the plane stays perfectly leveled when lifted at the center of gravity marked on the plan. Now I cut out the battery hole of the nose piece and glued it on.

Finished!!!
Finished!!!

And there it is: My build of Mikey’s RC F22 Raptor!!!

Unfortunately, this winter we got a lot of snow. So the first flight will have to wait 🙁

13 Comments on “My Build of Mikey’s RC F22 Raptor

  1. Well, the first flight ended with a big crash 🙁
    Unfortunately my cheap E-Sky transmitter lost connection after 20 meters and the plane crashed. So I have to wait for my new 2.4GHz transmitter from HobbyKing to arrive…

    • Hy
      i saw your amazing f22-fan-project – unfortunately the plan is not longer available.
      i looking for long time for an easy built ducted – can you send me the plans on my email: buendner76@yahoo.de

      Many thanks in advance and all the rc-people: Have a nice weekend

  2. I am only amazed to be familiar with how much of tips I gotten on this kind of topic. I m so pretty grateful of you. One thing I can claim that, after browsing this particular blog post I obtained rescued from the entire worthless search I ought to have conducted on this kind of issue. Your post is a genuine good thing in disguise.

    • The battery is in the front. It’s in the nose. The battery itself is white, that’s the reason why it’s hard to see. You see the red and black cables? They are the discharge leads of the battery.

      And yes, it flies perfect. See my videos!

  3. since the website for mikeysrc.com is down, is the PDF file plans available for the raptor F22 that can be shared.

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