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This is the story of the Superman 98
Jet Rally as told by the webmaster,
and his digital camera.

The turbines were out in force this year.
the reliability of the gas turbine engine
has set a new standard for R/C
aircraft. While the ratio of ducted fan
to turbines were approximately 50/50,
turbine powered jet had few engine
flameouts compared to their ducted
fan counterparts.

The number of crashes of ducted fans
greatly exceeded the turbine crashes.
I would speculate ducted fans to
turbines bit the dust at a 6 to 1 ratio.
This is significant considering the fan
to turbine ratio was closer to 1 to 1.

Here I am with my JPX-260
powered F-80 Shooting Star

Twin RAM 750 powered
Rafale

These judges were tough!!!

Turn off the smoke will you

Here are some pictures from the
qualifications.

Static Judging, I gave them
lots of static, but it didn't
seem to help.

We were treated to a big twin RAM
750 powered A-10 Warthog as flown
by Dean Lassek from Denver, Co.

The flight was fan-tastic, no make that
turbine-tastic. The only thing missing
was the sound, yes, I said the sound.
A turbo-jet just doesn't sound right for
a A-10, since the real plane uses huge
turbo-fan engines that, gulp, sounds
like a fan.

During the first flight, as Dean was
being motivated by the crowd to do
a inside loop, he throttled up those
RAM turbines, and popped a oil bottle
cap, and seized the bearing in one of
the engines. This prompted Dean to
land, but there was no problem, these
A-10 can fly back to a safe landing
even when powered by a single ducted
fan engine.

OUCH - IT HURTS

These pictures shows what does happen. While a couple turbine powered jet were destroyed.
The vast majority of the casualties were ducted fan powered planes. Given the better reliability
of the turbines, it may be cheaper in the long run to fly turbine power rather the fan power.