Hurricane V1.

1
2025 Division B/C Helicopter
By J&H Aerospace
www.jhaerospace.com

Expert class helicopter legal for Science Olympiad Helicopter 2025 competition

Includes materials for two complete helicopters

Tools/materials required: rubber lubricant (son of a gun works great), winder, needle nose
pliers/wire cutters, CA glue (or Duco/Ambroid/Sigment), razor blades, sandpaper, ruler, scissors.
Optional: Torque meter, turns counter (volareproducts.com).
 Hurricane Helicopter
J&H Aerospace
Building Instructions
Congratulations on your purchase of the Hurricane helicopter! You are about to build a reliable rubber powered helicopter capable
of over 2 minute flights in small gymnasiums.

Please use the Hurricane 2025 V1.1 Build Manual to guide your construction: https://jhaerospace.com/product/hurricane2025/

Direct link:

Additionally, following the build manual, IN EXACT ORDER, is absolutely critical to build a flyable helicopter. DO NOT TRY TO
INNOVATE OR DO IT YOUR WAY. You can try your own tricks once you have built a flying helicopter.

1. Parts list
Before beginning construction, please verify that your kit contains all of the necessary parts listed below. Please be aware that some
of the laser cut parts may have separated from their carrier sheet, so you should ensure that all of those parts are present and
undamaged.

1. 0.020”x13” carbon rods (11x)

2. 0.040”x13” carbon rods (8x)
3. Parts Sheet #1: Motorsticks, 1/8” balsa
4. Parts Sheet #2: Ribs and caps, 1/16” balsa
5. Top Rotor hubs (2x)
6. Bottom Rotor hubs (2x)
7. ¼” sq x 5” sticks (2x)
8. ¼” sq x 10” sticks (2x)
9. Veggie bag
10. 1/8”x16’ rubber
11. O-rings (8x)
12. Thread binding
13. Ballast (modeling clay)
14. 0.050” heat shrink tubing. 2” long
15. Vane stopper tubing, 2” long red plastic tube, 0.045” ID
16. 0.020” prop shafts (2x)
17. Rotor washers (white Teflon sheet)
18. Nose bearings (2x)
 Flight Data Log

Initial
Entry CG Incidence Airframe Backoff Climb Flight Turns
Date Rubber Turns Torque Comments/Adjustments
Number Location Settings Weight Turns Height Time Remaining
Length
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
Before beginning construction, be sure to verify that you have all of the recommended tools for building
your Hurricane. Also be sure to verify that all parts are present in the kit. If anything has been damaged
in shipping, please contact us IMMEDIATELY to get those issues resolved. Occasionally a component will
be missing or different from what’s shown in the instructions. Please contact us for that as well.
Sometimes minor changes are made during the production life of a model, so most confusion is simply
related to these changes.

DO NOT separate all the parts out of your parts sheets. Only separate parts out as you actually need
them so that they don’t get damaged or lost.

The kit documentation sheets include patterns for the rotor blades and stabilizer vane. These are used
to correctly align and assemble the helicopter components.

Glue usage must be carefully controlled. Any excess glue will damage your Hurricane’s ability to fly.
Take your time and be careful and accurate. Don’t accept mediocrity!

Lay down packing tape over the leading and trailing edges on the plans to make a non-stick surface. If
you are working on a table, you can actually overlap the tape over the edges of the plan to secure it to
the table, which will make construction much easier.

Each rotor blade is built with a 0.040” carbon leading edge and a 0.020” carbon trailing edge. The blades
are interchangeable because the tips and roots are identical, but you must respect the need for the two
different sizes of carbon or your helicopter will not fly.
Use strips of tape to hold down the carbon on the template while using scissors to cut it to size
(alternatively, measure 8.5” per spar to achieve the correct length).
After attaching the 0.040” spar in place, secure and trim the 0.020” spar

Use a razor blade to carefully separate a set of wing ribs (the larger and more curved ribs) from the
1/16” parts sheet. Be careful because the ribs are quite fragile.
Glue in the full depth tip ribs first. Use only enough glue to support the contact area. Excess glue will
render your Hurricane unflyable.

Then install the inner curved ribs.

Repeat these steps to build three (3) more rotor blades.

Use the same procedures to build the Rotor Vane using the rotor vane ribs, 0.020” carbon rods, and
rotor vane template.
You now have complete structures for the rotor blades and vane.
The large ¼” square sticks are used to make your covering frame. Glue them firmly together to form a
rectangular frame as shown.

You will need 3M-77 spray adhesive to cover your wing and tail. Get it out and have it handy. Plan
ahead—you do not want to use this product indoors because it will make everything around you
extremely sticky!
You need petroleum jelly/vaseline to make the covering frame stick to the veggie bag plastic. This
method allows you to reposition the covering so that it can be applied neatly to the flying surfaces.

We recommend using a paper towel to smear the Vaseline onto the frame so you can limit the travel of
this material. DO NOT get Vaseline/petroleum jelly near any of the rubber bands or strip in your
airplane because it will destroy those materials. Also it is best to do this over an alternate workspace
that you won’t be using for the rest of the build.
Cut out a piece of veggie bag a bit larger than your covering frame. Make sure it is going to be large
enough to have about 2 inches of excess on all sides before cutting it out and wasting covering material.
You have plenty of extra covering material, so if you don’t get it right the first time, try again. Take the
piece of covering and wad it up tightly into a ball. Flatten the covering out BY HAND on a clean, flat
surface. Now wad it up again. This time, flatten it out fully and completely, again by hand only, and get it
as smooth as your hands can get it. Do not try attempt to iron it flat or use any other method than
simply smoothing it out with your hands. Take your time to get it right. Once the film is smoothed out (it
will now have a crinkled appearance and texture), lower your covering frame, Vaseline side down, onto
the covering, and press it down all around to get it to attach to the covering. Now lift the frame-covering
assembly off, flip it over, and tension out any wrinkles or excess slack to get the covering as smooth as
possible (again, the crinkled texture is good, don’t try to get rid of it, and never attempt to heat shrink
the film).

Take your rotor blades and vane outside, or into a spray booth, and spray the convex curved rib side of
each with 3M Super 77. This will make them extremely sticky—be careful! It is very easy to damage the
parts once they have been sprayed because they will stick to your hands and get damaged if you don’t
carefully disengage your hands from them. Arrange the parts so they will fit within the bounds of the
covering frame.
Lay the parts, adhesive side up, onto a smooth, flat surface. Carefully lower the covering frame, covering
side down, onto the flying surfaces. Then gently run your finger around the outlines of the wing and tail
to press the film into contact with the parts. Be careful to press very, very gently so that you do not
damage the fragile ribs!

Use an electric cautery (available from indoorffsupply.com) or brand new razor blade to cut the film
around the outside of the flying surfaces. Do not leave any excess. Try to get as smooth of a trimming
job as possible. Excess film waving in the air will make your model fly poorly.
Remove a motorstick from its carrier sheet and cut a piece of heat shrink tubing to the length of the flat
spot on the end of the motorstick as shown.

Glue the tubing in place on the flat of the motorstick (top end).
Bind the tubing in place with thread and harden the thread with glue, being careful to avoid getting any
glue in side the tube.

Trim off the excess thread.

Find a piece of 0.040” carbon rod, and line it up with the triangular protrusion (called a gusset) on the
motorstick.

Line the 040” carbon rod with the gusset and press it into the motorstick parallel to the face of the
gusset. The rod should point upward to toward the shrink tubing end of the motorstick. Glue it firmly in
place.
Bind the rod in place and harden with glue. Trim off the excess thread.

Cut off the excess carbon so that the rod sticks out about ½ inch from the gusset.
Glue the rotor bearing assembly in place on the motorstick as shown.
Bind the bearing firmly in place on the bottom end of the motorstick with thread, harden the thread
with glue, and trim off the excess.

Locate a bottom rotor hub, prop shaft, and Teflon washers.

Insert the propeller shaft into the bearing as shown, and install three (3) Teflon washers from the Teflon
sheet.
Slide the rotor hub onto the propeller shaft in the EXACT orientation show. Don’t install it upside
down!!!.
With the propeller shaft slid out far enough to provide just enough clearance from the bearing from the
hook, bend the end of the shaft over at a SHARP 90 degree angle as shown. Use a good, clean, quality
pair of needle nose pliers for this task, gripped as hard as possible. If your fingers do not hurt when you
are bending the wire over, you’re not pressing hard enough, and you will end up with a curved propeller
shaft which doesn’t turn true. Bend it sharp and neat!

Now bend the shaft over a second time, again sharp and neat. Trim off any excess wire with quality wire
cutters.
 Glue the shaft in place on the hub

Carefully insert the top rotor hub into the slot on the top of the motorstick. Clean the slot in the hub and
the motorstick as needed for an exact fit. Pay close attention to correct orientation. The orientation of
this part is absolutely critical! Glue the hub in place with CA glue, using just enough to get a secure bond.
Cut a piece of 0.040” carbon rod to a length of 2 3/8 inches. Sand both ends of the rod to a point.
Glue the rotor vane to one end of the carbon rod as shown, leaving a tiny bit (1/32” to 1/16”) sticking
out.

Glue one of the balsa top disks to the top of the vane, sticking the tiny amount of excess carbon rod into
the small hole in the disk.
Attach a gusset between the disk and the carbon rod.
Cut off two very small lengths of the red plastic tubing, cutting the ends as square as possible.
Slide one of the red plastic tubing pieces onto the rotor vane mast as shown. It does not need to be
glued in place.

Slide the end of the carbon rod into the heat shrink tubing on the top of the motorstick.

Very carefully slide the second small piece of red tubing onto the bottom of the carbon rod to retain it in
the heat shrink tubing.
Use a tiny drop of glue on the bottom of the red tubing to secure it to the carbon rod.

Run a thin bead of glue on the support area of one side of the bottom rotor hub and carefully glue the
leading edge and end rib in place, laying them exactly onto the bonding surface. The 0.040” leading edge
is bonded to the hub, not the 0.020” trailing edge. Alignment with the built-in dihedral and pitch angle is
absolutely critical to achieving a flyable helicopter!
Secure the second blade in the same manner.
Secure the top rotor blades in the same manner, paying attention to exact alignment and the 0.040”
leading edges.
The rotors are not stiff enough to support themselves. You will need to install 0.020” carbon braces to
help the blades hole their shape. Run a carbon rod from the bottom of the rotor hub to the trailing edge
at the first inboard rib as shown.
Repeat this procedure for the top rotor.
If your Hurricane is reticent to fly, you may be able to improve its performance by adding rods from the
motorstick to the second trailing edge station on the top rotor as shown. DO NOT do this unless the
helicopter isn’t flying correctly because it does add weight (about 0.25g penalty, not insignificant).
Congratulations!!! Your Hurricane 2024 is now complete! Weigh your model to verify that it meets the
minimum weight of 4.00g. If not, glue clay to the bottom of the motorstick, out of the way of the
propeller shaft and rotor, to bring it up to the minimum weight.
Now you will need to make some rubber motors for it.

Cut a piece of rubber about 20 inches long (this is a good size to start with—you may find that longer
loops are more optimal, but start with 20 inches). Slide two of the white plastic o-rings onto the rubber.
Now you will need to tie a knot to join the ends of the rubber.

Bring the ends of the strip together and tie a granny knot as shown.
Tie a second granny knot and sinch it up to the first one for added security. Add a tiny dab of glue to the
knot on the outside (free ends) of the rubber loop. Trim off any excess.

Now lubricate the rubber as shown by rubbing silicone oil into it. As mentioned before, do not use
petroleum products to lubricate your rubber motor because they dissolve the rubber, making it
unusable.
You can now load the rubber onto the rear hook and the prop shaft. Typically the rubber will be very
slack, hanging loose under the model. It’s ok for the rubber to hang loose, as this will actually reduce
tension on the prop bearing and allow the rubber to be wound more tightly.
Wind the rubber motor, off the model in a clockwise direction using a hand crank winder. In the absence
of a torque meter, the other end of the rubber motor can be secured using a bent paperclip around a
chair leg. Start with 200-300 turns (not winder cranks—calculate this based on the gear ratio of your
winder) Be careful when installing the rubber onto the model that the o rings does not slip off the
bottom rotor shaft. This will take some experimenting to get it right.

If your model is correctly assembled, it should hover slightly or maybe gain a little altitude. Gradually
increase the number of turns in the rubber motor until the helicopter rises to the ceiling, keeping record
of you turns, torque, any turns you back off to remain clear of snags in the ceiling, and the model’s
overall performance.

Do not expect perfect flights from your model at first. If it does not perform correctly, veryify that it is
properly assembled and that you are winding in the correct direction.. All model airplanes require subtle
adjustments to get them flying their best. If your model crashes, never simply try to fly it again without
taking time to figure out what made it crash and what can be done to correct it. Crashes can be caused
by a poor launch (throwing too hard or too softly) or by the model being out of trim.

Please contact us using the contact form at jhaerospace.com or at [email protected] if you have
any questions regarding your Hurricane.

Want to become a pro at indoor flying? Try our Indoor Flight University curriculum. It contains extensive
information on building, designing, and flying your airplanes to get the most out of them. Along the way
you will learn a strong foundation of aerodynamic principles which will reveal the secrets of flight.

https://jhaerospace.com/product-category/curriculum/