Electric AS355 Project

Years ago I set out to make a large scale electric helicopter. Electrics were not all the rage they are now, there were no LiPo packs to use so it was all an experiment. I was able to leverage some work from one or two other that tried to do the same. For the most part they were successful, we just had to deal with short flight times.

I fabricated the frame and mounting out of ply with a little reinforcement with glass cloth. My intention was to be proof of concept and change to carbon fibre at some point but the ply has been holding up well and is still in place today. The mechanics are kind of a mutt, with parts from Vario, Hirobo, and Schluter.

I originally flew the Squirrel on 32 3000mAH full C cells. Years later when LiPos were usable I switched to a 12s 4400mAH Pack ( 2 x 6s in series ). The lighter weight and longer run times were a nice change.

For a long while I was plagued with small mechanical issues, wantiung to change this and that and the project slowly lost steam in favor of flying my nitro models. Well, I wiped the dust off, and took it out for a quick flight and remembered that last changes I did, and the heli is flying well. I decided to put the project back on the table and see if I can't finish it up. I don't think I will change the mechanics as they are still working well, maybe all it needs is the fuselage finished and go fly.

Here is the heli as it was before putting it back on the bench. If I actually do get around to finishing it, I will post progress here.