Align has ruled both the Nitro and the Electric RC helicopter world for quite some time now and this addition is all set to enlarge their empire further. Continuing the legacy of T-Rex RC Helicopters, Align is all set to launch the newest addition to the fleet, the 250.. This little heli is going to blow away all of the current offerings in about all possible aspects, be it performance, parts quality, or certainly price.

The 250 would be launched in two deal-kits and combos. The combo package will comprise of 3 cyclic servos (DS410 - Rated at 0.07s @6v) and 1 rudder servo (DS420 - Rated at 0.05s @6v), both of the servos are metal-geared. Both the packages will have the motor and ESC.

The price of the helicopter has not been announced and it will be in the range of $200 to $300.

The brochure of the helicopter has been attached herewith.

Here is a video of Bert Magbanua putting a Thunder Tiger Raptor 3D running a TT-Hemi through its paces.  This one is running a pre-production verision and pipe but looks like its ready for “prime-time” to me.

  LA3D 2008: TT-Hemi Demo (211.9 MiB, 20 downloads)
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Finally a manufacturer has stepped up to the plate to manufacture a motor for helicopters larger than .91.  I have been a long advocate of extending the current nitro  motor technology to keep in line with electric motor technology.  Thunder Tiger has announced their Thunder Tiger Redline 106 at iHobby 2008 in Chicago.  We saw it perform at the LA3D fun-fly here in Los Angeles and we were one of the first to get it flying on video and performed very well.   Beside from a proprietary exhaust system (and possibly OS and YS exhaust versions as well) this is going to raise the bar like iPhone did for the cellular handset market.

Here is a detailed photo from iHobby.

Not too much information, but Spartan is working on their new governor, incorporating a mixture control, and a collective management features all into one box. The collective management feature works as the following, “The iGV will use the target rpm to manage the throttle as you would expect. Once the engine has reached it’s maximum output and HS is still sagging, the system will then reduce collective to maintain the targeted rpm setting. All indicators are that you are better off maintaining HS vs having a lot of pitch in the blades and lower HS.”

Looks interesting, and waiting for more information to become available.

As some of you may know, Align had great success bundling their popular T-rex 600 NSP package to include an Align-labeled OS50SXH hyper engine. In fact it seems that they sold so many of these packages that they ran short of the Align-branded engines and are now packaging the standard OS-branded models.

Hoping to continue that success, Align has again partnered with the Ogawa Seiki Co. Ltd. (OS) to produce an Align-branded engine for the newly released .90 size T-rex 700. The new Align 91H helicopter engine is an Align branded OS 91HZ and the differences between this and the older OS 91 heli engine, the 91SZ are significant. We’ve seen this new motor already here on RC Heli Resource, but here are some side-by-side comparison shots of the 91SZ and 91H / HZ and their internal components. [ click here to see videos, photos & rest of story ]

Nice MR video of Lukas Riva flying the Align T-Rex 700 at IRCHA 2008 with CRASH at the end.

[ video courtesy of www.runryder.com ]

If you thought the above title is old news of the recently released 91HZ or Align 90 size engines, then you are wrong.

If you thought OS is done with their PS (pump) system on their heli-engine…again…you are wrong.

This new variant of the 91HZ has been equipped with the O.S. PD-08 pump and regulator system. The carburetor is a 61B-P.  It seems like O.S. took out the heatsink on the backplate to fit the pump, so the pump and regulator version is only just 17g heavier than the non-pumped version.

[ click here to see videos, photos & rest of story ]

Its has been released to the mass market, which means you can now buy a OS 91HZ in a OS box with the OS label, instead of the Align version. 

[ click here to see videos, photos & rest of story ]