Aramis

I have built this Aramis trainer model in the spring of 2025 purely out of nostalgia. My uncle Jack had built two of these. There’s a special story to one of his Aramis models that happened in 1968. It planted the seed for my hobby (and later my business). I was ten years old at that time and my uncle Jack took me and my elder brother to show us what RC flying was all about. His car was a Mini (the original very small one) and he used to transport his RC models bound on the roof whenever he had passengers on board. We went to a flying field about half an hour driving away and uncle Jack made some flights. One of the flights ended dead stick in an adjacent corn field where harvesting was going on. As it happened, the combined harvester was heading exactly towards the model and it took some frantic gesturing from my uncle to avoid disaster. Later that day, it started to rain and the option of rooftop transport was abandoned, so my brother in the front passenger seat had the task to hold the Aramis wing in the Mini while driving home. I had to hold the Aramis fuselage in the back trying not to touch anything. I did my very best as I didn’t want to be responsible for any damage but soon my arms started hurting. These were very long 30 minutes…

photo of my recent build next to the one of uncle Jack's model from the late sixties

I had been searching the internet for info on the Aramis and it was all very scarce. Apparently, the Aramis trainer was only popular in France. It was designed by Robert Lestourneaud and kitted initially through AirAlma and later Precisia. I could not find any plans, let alone any second hand kits for sale. The only things I found were a review in a French magazine and a few publicity pages until in November 2024, the plans suddenly appeared on outerzone.

As it turned out, the Swiss person who supplied the plans file had the kit for sale, so I contacted him and didn’t hesitate to purchase the kit.

original AirAlma Aramis kit found in Switzerland (note the sheet with plastic parts)

I didn’t want to touch the original kit, so I redesigned the model in CAD and substituted the plastic cowl, nose and wing tips with balsa parts. The new plan will be available from outerzone shortly but can be viewed here also. Click on the preview below to open the plan in pdf format.

redesigned CAD Aramis plan

I altered a few things to make the construction somewhat easier for me. All parts were cut on my CNC router.

my own redesigned kit with all CNC routed wooden parts

Construction itself was very straightforward. I will not expand on that, the photographs speak for themselves.

I chose for a vintage OS Max 25 RC engine for power which I found new in box. This is exactly the same engine as I had purchased over 50 years before to power my very first RC model, the Westerly by Svenson.

I finished the model with Oracover pearl blue, black and white. The underside of wings and stab are done in Oracover black and white checkerboard (half inch squares). Thanks to lightweight modern RC equipment, the weight of the finished model is only 1,5 kg. It will fly shortly. Enjoy the photographs.

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