It weighs only 5 kg and runs on a 10 c.c. engine but the blandly named TAM-5 was last night on course to become the first true model aircraft to cross the Atlantic.
The plane, which was launched from the coast of Newfoundland on Saturday evening, is scheduled to arrive on Mannin Beach in Connemara on the west coast this morning.
Designed by Mr Maynard Hill (77) of Pennsylvania, TAM-5 (Transatlantic Model) has been designed to use the equivalent of a whiskey shot, or only 2 oz, of fuel an hour.
By yesterday evening, it had travelled almost 750 miles, further than any previous attempt by a model craft to cross the Atlantic.
Four earlier attempts by Mr Hill and his team to achieve this feat ended in failure. Three of his model aircraft crashed last year and a fourth, launched last Friday, disappeared after 400 miles.
Mr Hill, who is legally blind and nearly deaf, has already set 23 world records for model aircraft flight. Quite apart from getting his name in the Guinness Book of Records, he hopes his achievement will act as a role model for people with disabilities.
TAM-5's route follows that taken by Alcock and Brown, who made the first manned flight across the Atlantic in 1919, from Newfoundland to Roundstone Bog.
At its launch, the model plane was guided by remote control to a cruising altitude of 120 metres. Then it was put on autopilot, to be steered by GPS signals and an on board microprocessor. The flight is expected to take between 32 and 38 hours.
Irish ham radio enthusiasts will join the record attempt today by picking up signals from the aircraft when it arrives within 25 miles of Mannin Beach. This will help ensure a safe landing, especially in the event of bad weather or an arrival before dawn.
Mr Ronan Coyne of the Galway amateur radio club said the model aircraft had suffered headwinds at the start of its voyage, but was now travelling with the benefit of a tailwind at speeds of up to 100 k.p.h.
Hopes were rising for a successful crossing, with the plane now expected to arrive sometime between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. this morning, he said.
To qualify as an aeromodel, TAM's weight including fuel could not exceed 5 kg. The wingspan is 1.83 metres and the principal materials are balsa wood and mylar film.
In 1998, another American group succeeded in sending an unmanned craft across the Atlantic, but it weighed 13.6 kg.
