Gary Wards MX2
The MX Aircraft MX2 in Gary Ward's airshow livery — the +/-14g carbon-fiber unlimited aerobat — captured as a sport-scale RC model.
About
The MX2 is the work of MX Aircraft of North Carolina, a small American aerospace company that has produced unlimited-aerobatic carbon-fiber airframes since the early 2000s. The MX2 was developed from the Akrotech Giles G-202 aerobatic trainer; the first prototype was a modified G-202 that first flew in May 2002, and the first aircraft of the initial production batch of five flew in May 2005. Powered by a 260-horsepower Lycoming IO-540 flat-six driving a three-blade tractor propeller, the MX2's all-carbon-fiber airframe is stressed for plus and minus 14g — extreme even by unlimited-aerobatic standards.
The MX2's competition record matched its construction. An MX2 placed second in the 2005 Sebring Aerobatic Competition, and competition pilot Rob Holland — one of the most successful airshow aerobatic performers of his generation — won the 2008 World Advanced Aerobatic Championships in an MX2 and went on to take the 2018 U.S. National Aerobatic Championships in the type as well. The MX2 has become one of the airframes most associated with the modern American airshow circuit, alongside the Edge 540 and Extra 300.
This RC model is finished in the airshow livery of Gary Ward, a long-time American airshow aerobatic pilot who has flown the MX2 in display work. The unmistakable MX2 silhouette — clean carbon-fiber low-wing, big bubble canopy, and the distinctive long-engine cowl — is one of the more contemporary aerobatic subjects in modern RC scale flying, with foam, balsa, and giant-scale gas MX2 kits appearing at scale-aerobatic fly-ins worldwide.
In the simulator
A serious unlimited-aerobatic mount with the kind of aggressive handling the real MX2 was built for. Substantial control authority, the +/-14g design philosophy translated to demanding stick discipline, and the kind of in-the-air presence that suits airshow display flying. Use it for the unlimited-aerobatic vocabulary: vertical lines, knife-edge passes, slow rolls, and hovering on the prop. Pairs well with grass strips and aerobatic-box landscapes. A natural sibling of the Edge 540 line, CAP232, and Extra 300 in earlier packs.
