Hashimoto's Noto 2003 WC winning machine

Hirobo prototype "Eagle III"

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Once again Mr. Manabu Hashimoto of Japan re-claim the World Champion title after winning the FAI F3C World Championships 2003 held in Noto, Japan. This is his third winning of the FAI-F3C World Championship title. Hashimoto used a prototype machine, cpde named "Eagle III" for this competition. Since it was hidden under the Black Shark III fuselage very few people could take a glimpse of it. Here in this page I am going to take the cover off Hashimoto's Black Shark III to reveal to you the champion winning machine. Before we go to that, let's take a look at some personal information of Manabu Hashimoto:

Personal data of Manabu Hashimoto

Date of birth: 13th June, 1972

Age: 31

Occupation: R&D, Hirobo Limited

Family status: Married with one daughter

Years in hobby: 16 years

Caller: Tetsuya Kusakabe of Hirobo Limited

Mechanic: Hideyoshi Kurokawa of Black Hobby

WC title held: Turkey 1997, Poland 1999 and Japan 2003

Hashimoto with caller Tetsuya Kusakabe	Hashimoto with prototype "Eagle III"

Technical data of the machines that Hashimoto used in 2003 Noto WC

Design highlights of Eagle III chassis

As previously mentioned, Hashimoto used a prototype machine to win the Noto F3C World Championship. This machine is code named "Eagle III" at this moment. The "Eagle III" have been a top secret item developed jointly the R&D team of Hirobo with co-operation by Hideyoshi Kurokawa of Black Hobby as outside consultant. The development began right after the World Championships of 2001, and many evolutions and testing have been committed to result with what Hashimoto is using in Noto, 2003. Before the competition, Hashimoto had to face a decision of whether to use the existing, proven stellar performance Freya WC or this prototype test bed to compete for the World Championship. After some thoughts, at the very last moment Hashimoto decided to use the prototype because he felt that the rigorous environment of the World Championship is a good testing environment to test a prototype, so he decided to use a prototype machine. 

Basically, the lower chassis of the "Eagle III" is the same as the Eagle II WC DTDS and Freya WC, but with the upper chassis a new design. The most interesting feature of "Eagle III's" upper chassis is Hirobo's patented Variable Pitch-Up System (VPUS) where modes of collective control are closable between fixed swashplate and sliding swashplate collective pitch control. (Hashimoto chose the more conventional "sliding swashplate" collective pitch control on his machines) A "floating cyclic control block" is incorporated as part of the control system. This block, which encased the elevator and aileron servo, would compensate on minor cyclic controls to enable a linear cyclic control. The control surface of the aileron and elevator are now on a straight line, providing a linear cyclic control feeling. A one piece bearing block that extends from the front to the main shaft of the upper chassis, that holds the floating cyclic control block and drive train is used to provide stiffness to the chassis. A sliding bearing block, in between the elevator control arms assembly, would provide pitch control for fixed swashplate collective pitch control. Most parts of this machine were hand made prototype parts for testing purposes only.

At this moment, Hirobo does not have a definite plan to produce this prototype. Even if this prototype design would go into production some of the features might not be incorporated into the final product, as some of the parts have to be further refined to provide better functions and a better cost effective solution for mass production. However, looking at Hirobo's track record, what Hirobo finally sell on the market will be the same unit Hashimoto ultimately flies later, so there will be no doubt that later if this prototype will get to the market with its rough edges smoothed what you buy on the shelve will be the same unit of what Hashimoto ultimately flies.

Floating cyclic control block	Top view of upper chassis
Collective pitch change mechanism	Revised elevator arms assembly

Design highlights of Eagle III rotor head (SSR-VII)

The rotor head part on Hashimoto's winning machine is also a prototype, code named "SSR-VII" at this moment. The design of this "SSR-VII" prototype rotor head is a further refinement of the SSR-VI rotor head as used in the Freya WC. The flybar control system comes from the SSR-VI, which provides a near 1:1 Bell/Hiller mixing ratio. The yoke part of the rotor head is new design, which consists of both a central teeter hinge, two coning hinges, and uses separate sprindles. The central teeter hinge allows the entire rotor head to tilt left and right in order to allow the blades to flap, while the coning hinges allow each blade to have its own independent dampening, to move up and down independently of the other blade to allow a coning angle to form in the hover. According to Hirobo, the "SSR-VII" provides further hovering stability compared to the SSR-VI. A set of new carbon paddles are used on Hashimoto's machines. These paddles have a more aggressive airfoil and provides better control precision compared to the Freya paddles. Each of these paddles weight around 40 grams. Like the prototype chassis, Hirobo does not have a definite plan to produce this prototype rotor head, and even if this prototype design would go into production some of the features might be changed.

SSR-VII rotor head	New carbon flybar paddle

Black Shark III fuselage

The history of the Black Shark series fuselage have been glorious in the history of our hobby. None other fuselage series have won the F3C World Championship title as many as the Black Sharks. The latest version of the Black Shark is the third generation, which is designed and produced by Hideyoshi Kurokawa of Black Hobby. Riding on the success of the Black Shark II, Mr. Kurokawa developed the Black Shark III to specially target the current F3C rules, where more hovering pirouettes and more aggressive aerobatics are included in the schedule. The Black Shark III, like its predecessors, is developed under wind tunnel testing to ensure stable aerobatic performance. Black Shark bodies have been known to have flying characteristics of a pattern plane in aerobatics, and I think this characteristics owe much to the wind tunnel testing. I personally have the Black Shark II and Black Shark III, and feel that the Black Shark III sacrifice a bit on the speed of forward flight to trade for hovering and tracking stability. More of this fine fuselage will be revealed here as Mr. Kurokawa prepared the same Black Shark III that Hashimoto used in Noto WC for me to test.

Sanwa Stylus 200ms radio system

One of Hashimoto's machine is using a Sanwa Stylus 200ms radio system. The Stylus 200ms radio is Sanwa's latest top of the line radio system, and it features a 200ms high response control system to provide better control resolution. The so called "High Response System" lately have been a new feature in r/c car radio. This radio system features a "smart card" system where the control software and memories are stored in a card, so update of the computer software could be done by inserting another card with updated software. At this moment, whether Hashimoto use a standard helicopter software card or a "tricked up" one is not known. Personally I've tried Hashimoto's Freya WC with this Sanwa radio, and found control resolution to be very fine and precise, that tops the control feelings of my Futaba 9Z WC II and JR PCM 10X. However, I feel that the transmitter needs to be further refined to include some user friendly features like a large graphical display of various curves and digital trims to put this system on par with other makes of radios at its price level.

Sanwa Stylus 200ms radio

After taking cover off Hashimoto's machine, now you have a taste of what might be coming from Hirobo. However, please note that the prototype "Eagle III" currently does not have a fixed date of production, and the features you see here might not be in the final production version if one day the Eagle III is on the market. For me personally, I will be waiting patiently for tis design to come to the market one day, and if so I would write a review to let you know more about this fine machine. Stay tuned here for more information on this fine machine.

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