I am toying with getting into model planes after a long absence. What I have in mind is another foray into multi-engines. I have the original plans but imagine electric controlled by Arduino is a better bet than diesel. With this in mind, would stepper motors be the way to go?
Steppers for the main engines, or the control surfaces?
Main engines. I hadn't yet thought down the track to the control surfaces! Thank you
A stepper motor is a terrible idea for the main motor of a plane. They are slow, inefficient and heavy. There is no conceivable reason why you would want to stop a propellor at one of hundreds of specific positions.
I am wondering if a troll has hijacked your identity.
OK. The reason for thinking that way was to keep the steppers in step, nothing to do with stopping the propeller.
Use DC motors - brushless if you want lots of power - just like every other electric R/C flyer. Read the electric flight magazines.
...R
Thanks. This is just a germ..........
There are several brands of toilet cleaner that claim to deal with them 
...R
Robin2 is right. Stepper motors are precise, but slow. They would never achieve the RPMs necessary to propel an aircraft forward.
Also, for your control surfaces, a small hobby servo is probably the best way to go.
A heavy-ish stepper motor might be rated at 10W electrical power input, a brushless
RC motor of 1/5 the weight might be rated at 200W or similar - a significant fraction
of a horsepower out of something the size of an egg...
For flight you need outrunner brushless motor with ESC to drive it and a LiPo pack to
power the thing. No other option comes close to the power/weight ratio really, certainly
steppers are two orders of magnitude out of the running.
Lots of websites out there with more info.
I'm not an expert in steppers, but I have been playing with one for a robotic arm for about two months now. This is what I have learned, cars are built to drive, planes fly, steppers step. Not to be smart, but you can shave your face with a knife, but why? They make great razors for that purpose.
MarkT:
For flight you need outrunner brushless motor ...
Small aircraft can fly with cheap brushed motors.
...R
Oh, those tiny helicopter tail-rotor motors? Yes, tiny tiny aircraft, but not practical for something bigger when heat dissipation becomes a killer, outrunners are very well
ventilated and have good torque for a larger airscrew
MarkT:
Oh, those tiny helicopter tail-rotor motors? Yes, tiny tiny aircraft, but not practical for something bigger when heat dissipation becomes a killer, outrunners are very well
ventilated and have good torque for a larger airscrew
Not really, Mark; I've got the motor, prop, ESC and receiver out of an older styrofoam "park flyer" (it had about a 4 foot wingspan) that I picked up as "junk" at a Goodwill (only worth the servos, motor, esc, etc - the fuselage and wing were trashed) - which used a brushed motor (something like a 380 can, maybe smaller).
Far from small, though certainly not a large R/C aircraft by any means. There were plenty of R/C aircraft prior to low-cost BLDC motors (back when people were still hacking CD-ROM motors to get such things cheaply) that used brushed DC motors...
cr0sh:
an older styrofoam "park flyer" (it had about a 4 foot wingspan) that I picked up as "junk" at a Goodwill (only worth the servos, motor, esc, etc - the fuselage and wing were trashed) - which used a brushed motor (something like a 380 can, maybe smaller).
That's exactly what I was thinking of.
...R