Back, for the sixth time, due to popular demand, comes 1.43 aerobatic aircraft. Specifically an Extra 300, flown by Aerobatic genius Chris Burkett. The .43 is a 43% scale model of Chris’s Extra (with 43% Chris inside) flown from the ground by multiple remote-control champion Mike Williams.
Still one of the most talked - about acts in the Airshow world this extraordinary double act gives our commentator, Ken Ellis, an enormous opportunity for error. Ken’s one of the leading authorities on aircraft in the World, but often it becomes completely impossible to tell which is the model and which the real thing.
In the end, you (and Ken) will have to be given a clue after a dizzying array of loops, tumbles, rolls and other stomach turning moves are made - Mike’s model has a 1:1 power to weight ratio. This means that he can hover the model, facing vertically, with the whole issue ‘hung’ on the propeller. Chris can’t do this (nor should he try) but as he comes by for the last time, he’ll probably give a wave; one thing his 43% doppelganger can’t do (he’s made of plastic).
Photos courtesy Paul Johnson, Flightline.