The Road to Top Gun: Sneak Peek of the Competitors

The Road to Top Gun: Sneak Peek of the Competitors

The 26th Annual Top Gun Scale Invitational, is once again going to be a full 5-day extravaganza of the best RC scale competition. Starting on April 30 and continuing till May 4, Frank Tiano’s annual event will take place at the Paradise Field RC flying facility in Lakeland FL. And, for the first time, there will be a new paved runway as well as one of the best sod surfaces found at any flying event! As the Primary Media Sponsor, Model Airplane News is again helping kick off the excitement with our sneak peak of the planes and pilots planning to attend this year’s event. The battle for the “Mr. Top Gun ” crown, is always exciting and you never know who’s going to walk away with the coveted title.

We’ll be featuring many online photos and details shown no where else. Check out these amazing planes the contestants will be competing with. Stay tuned and be sure to leave your comments.

Vitaly Robertus, Yakovlev Yak-130

Vitaly Robertus, Yakovlev Yak-130

Originally debuted at the 9th Jet World Masters championship in 2011, Vitaly Robertus designed and produced the RusJet Yakovlev Yak-130. When he first unveiled this amazing jet, it was recognized as having a level of accuracy never before seen in competition and it set a new world standard in its class never before achieved.

The Road to Top Gun: Sneak Peek of the Competitors

The jet is ¼-scale and is powered by twin JetCat P-100RX turbine engines. Vitaly uses a Futaba T18 transmitter and JR servos with a PowerBox receiver. Features include flaps, slats, airbrake, speed brake, drop tanks, landing lights, navigation lights, rotating beacons,  a working APU, retractable landing gears, opening canopy, an animated pilot, and working multi-functional displays.

 

Updated: July 30, 2015 — 12:46 PM

18 Comments

  1. only the rich can have the jets

  2. The paved runway will make this event even better than before. I look forward to seeing even more scale aircraft because of this.

  3. Why not give the trophy to him now?. What an amazing airplane. I can see why it sets the “standard” now.!

  4. Camping area available, TENTS?

  5. Yes, the very rich, they should rename it to “Top Rich Top Gun” seems that money determines the winner.

  6. Hi Gerry…noticed typo you might want to correct….I don’t think the Top Gun winner gets a coveted “tile”…(-: ….btw…congrats on your cool career..you once did a beautiful build article in MAN with my dad (Sid Miller) in 1998 for his Pietenpohl Air Camper…we miss him…he spoke fondly of you…

  7. How much money does he actually have invested into this Yak?

    I have seen some crazy numbers with many zeros… I have no idea if any of them are accurate.

  8. Actually, it is winners that determine the rich.

  9. Vitali’s Yak 130 is arguably the best R/C model ever built. The 2013 version is much improved over the already breathtaking aircraft from 2011 — it truly needs to be seen to be properly appreciated. And I don’t care much about the economic status of the builder/owner — this machine is a jewel. And that’s all that should count.

  10. Most might be rich but not all. As for me, it was a simple matter of selling one of the children and hocking my wife’s jewelry.

    1. Hello all you don’t have to be rich just love model aircraft and fly really really good. Im flying my 1\3 scale supercub and by no way am I rich look for it to be in the top 10 of pro am when im done this year I plan to take the warbirds down with side slips and scale speed. Not cost lol .

  11. You can.t buy the ability to build or fly such masterpiece. i can’t be jealous of something i could never do myself like brain surgery or build a top gun model.check out the videos.

  12. This may be as close to a “miniature” version of the real thing as has ever been attempted. The following link gives some real detail: http://vimeo.com/71377434. The internet/Facebook links suggest that RusJet is a Moscow based club (with very, very deep pockets I would think!). Quite a distance from my early Comet tissue/stick models!

  13. Great plane, well done , good on you. Dont take any notice of the knockers they are just jealous, cheers Steve

  14. Expert or Team Scale?

    Len Bechtold

  15. Beautiful aircraft! Last time I checked, that is what this hobby is about! Not what somebody can afford! I think we all should strive to build the best that we can afford, and not how much money someone else spent on their masterpiece.

  16. Amazing plane. Definitely it has set a new standard for scale competition. Read that the total project cost around $300.000. 3 planes were produced.
    =D

  17. why was he not at top gun

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