Case in history: The Typhoon to Toccata story:

Designed by me way back in 2008, now over a decade and a half ago, the Typhoon 2M is the biggest selling composite moulded glider of all time, with more than two thousand five hundred models sold. Many people have trained on the Typhoon as their first mouldie and I am proud to say it has become a classic.

But…how did all this begin?

How indeed…Following a ‘noble’ but it turned out, naive ambition, I had been in contact with a Chinese company who later became RCRCM. The idea I had was to try to produce some honest nice flying moulded sailplanes in order to sell the models at prices that the less well-heeled among us could afford. Well, that idea died a death but that’s another story. The first of these models was the Vector 2M, a fully aerobatic moulded model that actually saved the company’s life, as at the time they were about to go bankrupt and had even started to pack up the machines and equipment for sale.

Why no models?

The problem the company had was simple: They had no idea how to make fully moulded models, although they had the equipment and people to do so. In starting the company, they had assumed that moulded model making was a generally known and easy to access technology, which even now it is not.

How was the problem fixed?

I was travelling to China regularly at the time as part of my consulting business so side trips to Jinan were not hard to arrange, and I visited RCRCM several times in order to teach them how to actually make the products. Happily, they had a CNC machine so the turnaround was pretty fast and after six months and several such excursions they were finally in a position to produce acceptable quality model gliders.

The Typhoon 2M is born.

Sales of the Vector finally gave to company some income and allowed it to continue in business; so, it was time to expand the model range, and I saw the possible gap in the market for a nice 2M allrounder model. So, one day, in the midst of a raging typhoon, I put pen to paper and the Typhoon 2M model sailplane was born. Not hard to figure out how I came up with the name.

Crash and burn.

I went on to design several other models for RCRCM but eventually parted company when they hit on a policy of purposely making the models to a low standard because in that way they would soon break and so the flyer would buy a replacement – really?

Anyone who knows anything about wet-layup composites knows that it takes just as long to make shoddy model as it does to make a really good one.

Another thing that was a big problem is that the engineers at RCRCM always thought they knew better than I did and used to make alterations to the designs without telling me.

Anyway, my noble hopes of cheaply available good models dashed, we parted and I have had no contact with RCRCM for at least 14 years.

The recent past ~ 2023.

Needless to say, over the last decade and a half I have had many, many comments, suggestions, and advice concerning the model. Enough to make me wonder if maybe it was time I made an updated MKII Typhoon as part of my own range. Over the years, design and construction technology has improved, knowledge has improved, and I had a really good base design to use as the frame for the new model. Lots of green lights there and in reviewing what I could and would improve, quite a number of points appeared:

What are the design differences between the original classic Typhoon 2M and the Mew MKII Toccata? Here are my notes before designing:

One fuselage version for both glider and electric versions.

Round spinner adaptable nose (38mm).

No nose cone -canopy type.

New OLD (Optimised Lift Distribution) wing planform.

JH817 aerofoils suite.

Unique BSLD wing rigging.

Larger flaps.

Much larger wing joiner.

Wing ballast – fuselage can also have a ballast tube.

Elevator horizontal stabilizer – no more AMT.

Rudder and elevator servos in the fin.

Full carbon wing as standard on S and double carbon on SS versions.

Sine wave spar.

Aramid/glass nose.

LightStrong technology as standard.

Wow…quite a list, but in fact all of that technology is all standard on my own range of models so it’s not a major task to import it onto the Typhoon airframe. So, the idea was a major redesign but keeping the same curves and lines of the father while incorporating the technical construction and aerodynamic changes to the son.

And so again, that’s what I did. The all-new Typhoon MKII Toccata was born. I’m pretty happy to say it’s the most advanced model in my portfolio to date and I hope it performs as well as it is designed to. Watch this space for flight tests!