This plain white box contains the new Century Swift NX 550, it’s so new that the decals and manual aren’t even available yet!
The brown truck brought me this white box on Friday. I’ll show you the undressing of the paper and plastic and illustrate this new model’s components.
- Everything is neatly and compactly packed into separate boxes.
- Plastic cabin, pre-assembled main frame and windscreen.
- from Left to Right, integrated receiver mount, integrated 3rd-bearing block, mounting plate under battery tray.
- Angled battery tray at front.
- From Left to Right, larger battery tray, motor mount, metal cabin mounts, push-pull elevator, gyro mount integrated into elevator servo mout, integrated receiver tray.
- Pre-assembled rotorhead, all metal-to-metal fasteners threadlocked. Bulked up main blade grips and yoke. Upper rotor headspeed suggested limit = 2100 RPM.
- Mixture of parts: From top Left to bottom Right, Swift plastic paddles, extra dampers, blue thread lock + spare hardware, battery Velcro strap, flybar control arms, hex key kit, hardware and linkages, landing gear skid pipes, plastic tail fins, plastic landing gear struts.
- Wood 550mm main rotor blades, metal tail boom braces, 3mm flybar.
- Pre Assembled tail section, belt driven, plastic tail blades, radial bearing-only tail grips.
- Belt drive tail, plastic drive gear.
- Semi-enclosed tail case, ball-link pivot pitch slider.
The official release is in 2 weeks from 3.15.2010. The manual and decals are not yet available either.
I’ve already assembled the model and it’s nearly ready to fly with the following components:
- Century 600A Plus 1110KV motor
- Century 11T, 5mm shaft, 1.0 Modulus pinion
- RotorTech 560mm Carbon Blades (will test with stock wood blades too!)
- Castle Creations Phoenix ICE 100 speed control
- Castle Creations BEC Pro
- Futaba R6008HS Receiver
- Custom Heli Products 2.4GHz antenna mount
- MKS BLS-950 Brushless servos on cyclic
- MKS BLS-980 Brushless servo on tail
- Spartan RC Quark gyro
- 6s5000 Lithium polymer battery
I chose the 11t pinion because the Phoenix ICE ESC’s program suggested this was the optimal pinion to run the ESC at optimal efficiency (79.2% output (around 80% is best)) and allows the ESC plenty of headroom to control the rotor RPM. The throttle curve will be around 50% – this is unlike the typical Century Electron ESCs that can be run at 100% throttle and would necessitate a 9t pinion.
Maximum safe headspeed is 2150 RPM. MSRP is $219.95
Nearly all of the upgrades that are compatible with the Swift 16 will fit on the NX.
NEW Features:
- New sleek, aerodynamic canopy with smoked windshield.
- Solid single piece side frames with incorporated bearing capture slots.
- Updated control system for improved response.
- New driven tail system for added control during auto-rotations.
- Upgraded head block for increased durability.
- Upgraded landing gear for increased support and durability.
- Updated battery mounting system to bring CG higher for increased roll rates and battery protection.
- Triple bearing supported main shaft.
- Updated tail fins for added stability and improved appearance.
- New high visibility decals
Stay tuned for more details, images and the flight report!
Century really did a great job with the Swift NX and took the best of the best from the Original Swift and the Swift 550, combined them into one and out came the Swift NX.
Great pictures guys!
- Kyle