Century Swift NX Preview

I was recently in the San Francisco Bay Area for business and had a chance to stop by the Century Heli headquarters in San Jose, California. This building contains the warehouse as well as product development and support staff, in addition to a small showroom in the front. The employees had just returned from the AMA Expo, where they had debuted a number of new products.

 

It turns out my timing was perfect as I got a chance to see the prototype of the Swift 16 replacement, which will be called the Swift NX. There are numerous changes to the kit:

• The NX uses a double-stacked main gear, which means the tail is now driven during autorotations.
• The battery pack now sits on an angled tray underneath the canopy, rather than being hung from below. The prototype still had the aluminum battery tray below but it may be removed before going into production.
• The canopy has a completely new styling and is only attached at two points, rather than four. It is somewhat larger and more angular, and the trademark "crater" in the windshield is gone.
• The elevator servo arrangement has changed completely. The servo is now mounted in between the frames, and connects to an internal bellcrank which moves a 90 degree elbow to the swashplate. A separate anti-rotation bracket is no longer needed.
• Above and behind the new elevator mounting points are built-in plates for mounting the gyro and receiver. Previously, an optional gyro plate was available for screwing into the top of the tail boom mount, and receiver placement was an afterthought.
• The landing gear struts are thicker and more sturdy than the previous ones.

Our take: These are all welcome improvements to the Swift 16, especially the battery placement and built-in gyro and receiver mounting points. Hopefully the new canopy will be easier to install and remove than the current one, otherwise changing batteries will be tedious.

I'm a bit ambivalent about the new elevator setup, as I have not had a problem with the older, simpler design. That's not to say there's anything wrong with it - this design is shared by some of the Century nitro helicopters. However it does contain more moving parts and more opportunities for friction.

Other than the items described above, the NX appears very similar to the 16. I did not notice any changes to the head other than the new bearings for the main gear. The prototype had heavier, solid paddles on it which would be a welcome change, but they may have been temporary. This particular heli also had a longer tail boom and upgraded tail boom supports, but I was told they were not going to be used.

No word yet on release date or pricing, or whether some of the problems with the Swift 16 kit have been addressed. Look for an article in the next month describing those issues and how they could be resolved. The Swift 16 remains one of the best values in a 500-550mm electric helicopter, and although I bought the existing model recently, I'm excited to see a new revision on the horizon.

Updated February 28th, 2009: Our new Swift 16 Improvements article is now posted.