Sebastian Glueck, Business Development Manager with Scale Wings began our conversation by stating “we finally made it to Sun and Fun 2022 in Lakeland.”
ScaleWings, a company that hails from Germany, started around 2011 with an idea from its founder. The idea was to scale up replica of his remote-control (RC) aircraft that was precise in detail. He crowd-sourced a poll to determine which iconic aircraft he should up-Scale. The majority vote was for the P51 Mustang, so he began with pictures of a real Mustang, handcrafting molds for the aircraft that ended up being 70% true scale of the real Mustang. He persevered with exact detail, so that every split line, every rivet, and every screw is in the exact place. Luckily for them, the kit arrived in New York three days ago, they had it driven down to Florida, just in time to be assembled for Sun n Fun.
Finally, they are here in the USA where they see the most potential market for the aircraft, they’ve named SW51. Mr. Glueck stated that if the customer wants the kit, they can get it, if they want to assemble it themselves, that is entirely possible. ScaleWings has mostly manufactured the kit in such a way that no special skills are required. Whether you’re working on the alignments of ailerons and rudder, that is not necessary because all of that is already done at the ScaleWings factory. All that remains is ‘legal assembly.’
Relatively quickly, the builder is able to fly this beautiful aircraft. On the version currently on display at Sun n Fun, ScaleWings chose the Rotax 915 engine primarily for its reliability, ease of maintenance, and service coverage all over the United States. The very low fuel consumption [of this engine] especially with the rising fuel prices now, while still providing a cruising speed of 150 knots at higher altitudes. With its turbo-charged engine, it will give us a good run up to 15,000 feet at 180 knots true airspeed.
The introductory cost of that kit [the SW51 on display] is about $138,000 without the engine, propeller, or avionics. The builder should be done with that plane if they are quick [in their efforts] within a year. The wings can be removed, like on a glider; just one bolt goes through the wing, you can take the outer wings off to save on hangar space. ScaleWings is looking forward to seeing more [of their aircraft] in the air. There are two kids already in assembly at Titan Aircraft, their partner in Austinburg, Ohio, who are doing build-assists with two customers, and hope more will follow. The author observed that as of today, a P51 sells for a little over $4m, so even after adding avionics, propeller, and engine, your SW51, nicely equipped will only set you back around 6.5% of that cost!
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