The Comet Phantom Flash is a simple rubber powered plane which may be flown indoors or out, at least on calm days.  It was originally designed by Comet, but is now available from many sources as a kit or plans. A kit with laser cut main parts is available from retrorc.us.com.  An indoor flight lasting over 1.5 min was posted on YouTube by sandfac of Glastonbury CT on 1/10/2016.  Decorations were inspired by the popular Phantom comic strip. Wing span is 16 inches. In one memorable flight in Racine’s Memorial Hall, I lost a contest to the designer’s brother, Ed Konofes, even though my Flash flew for 83 seconds, circling near the 40 foot ceiling. Outdoors, on a sunny day you can easily lose a Flash.

The Flash is light, with airframe weight of 7-8 grams in my case, depending on repairs. The best flight used a rubber motor made of 0.070 inch wide strip that weighed 1.4 grams for a 14.5 inch loop. This is considerably longer than the length between rubber hooks of 8 inches. I wound in 1800 turns for the 83 second flight. Rubber was provided at the contest, and seemed a bit soft. When I wound to 1350 turns for a test flight, climb didn’t reach the ceiling, but the flight was nearly a minute long. In a school gym with half the ceiling height I’ve used half the turns and maybe a shorter motor. Wing area for the Flash is 34 square inches and wing loading is 1.4 ounces per square foot. Cube loading is 2.9 ounces per cubic foot.