How to Build a Cheap and Easy Model Airplane that Flies - Version 2.0

hi everyone welcome back to another episode of design your own airplanes for those of you who are new to the channel these videos are dedicated to explaining aerospace engineering principles and demonstrating them using simple gliders so that you can design and build your own model airplanes that actually fly in our first video we learned how to build this simple and inexpensive glider from common materials in this video we're going to learn how to build this new version of the glider the new glider has several improvements over the old version this time the fins are larger and the tail is longer compared to the size of the wing this makes the glider more stable and easier to fly this time the glider is made almost entirely out of foam board this means that you'll need fewer building materials and tools than last time the plane will be cheaper and there will be fewer steps in the construction process and of course the main purpose of these gliders is to allow you to experiment with different designs and learn about aerospace engineering through hands-on experience that is why the new glider has an even more modular design than the last one this time the wing tail and fuselage are held together with rubber bands making it easier to mix and match parts and experiment with different designs this also makes it easier to replace broken parts when necessary before we start building let's go over the materials and tools that we'll need first you'll need a sheet of Adams ready board which is often called foam board this can be purchased at Dollar Tree next you'll need some small weights third you'll need a roll of tape and fourth you'll need some rubber bands for tools you'll first need a ruler and a pencil for marking out the dimensions of your parts next you'll need an xacto knife for cutting out the foam pieces and it helps to have some spare blades and a cutting mat as well finally you'll need a hot glue gun and some glue stick you might also want to have a block of sandpaper but this is optional now that we have all of our building materials and tools let's get to work start by marking out the dimensions of your parts then cut them out with your xacto knife for the wing you'll need a piece that's 30 in Long which is about the length of a sheet of foam board and 4 in wide also make a mark across the wing 2 in back from the Leading Edge as well as two marks 5 in in from the wing tips for the fuselage cut three identical pieces each 26 in long and 1 and 1/2 in tall also cut a triangle off the back of each as shown for the horizontal stabilizer cut a piece 9 in long and 2 and 1/2 in wide for the vertical stabilizers cut two squares each 2 and 1/2 in the next step is to put some camber into the wing camber is a slight curve in the wing when viewed from the side this helps it generate more lift Force which we'll be talking about in a later video start by making a cut 2 in back from the Leading Edge of the wing cut through the first layer of paper and the foam but do not cut through the second layer of paper this should leave you with a nice hinge next take your xacto knife and cut a small bevel into each side of the hinge alternatively you can use a piece of sandpaper to make the bevel instead a wing that has more curve in it is said to have more camber and a wing that has less curve in it is said to have less camber to get the right amount of camber take two of your fuselage pieces and stack them under one side of the wing try to line them up as close to the edge as possible next take your glue gun and fill the Gap with glue try to get it as far down into the crack as you can I'd also recommend using a low temperature setting for this step so that you don't melt the foam once the glue has dried you'll have a cambered wing with a nice curve the next thing we're going to do is taper the leading and the trailing edges of the wing this will reduce drag force on your plane which we'll talk about in a later video use your fingernail or a piece of scrapwood to crush the leading and the trailing edges this should leave you with some nice pointed edges on the front and back of the wing at this point you can also round off the corners so that they don't crumple as easily the last step on the wing is to add some dihedral dihedral is when the wing curves upwards like this this prevents the plane from flipping over in Flight start by cutting a small slot 5 in in from the wing tip but don't cut the end of the wing entirely off take one of your 1 and 1/2 in tall fuselage pieces and use it to prop up the wing tip fill the crack with glue to make it hold its shape and then do the same for the other wing tip at this point your wing is finished if you want to save some more weight you can peel the paper off the foam board but keep in mind this will also make your wing more flimsy we're going to talk a bit more about aircraft structures in a later video the next step is to build the tail start by tapering the leading and the trailing edges of the vertical and horizontal stabilizers just like we did for the wing glue the vertical stabilizers onto the ends of the horizontal stabilizer make sure that they're straight or else the plane won't fly straight finally we're going to assemble the fusel lay down a large bead of glue on your Center fuselage piece I'd recommend using a higher temperature setting for this step so that your glue doesn't cool too quickly stick one of your side pieces on and try to make it line up as best you can do the same thing for the other side if you want to save some weight you can peel the paper off of the inboard faces of the foam board but I would recommend leaving the paper on the outboard faces for better structural stability you can use your knife to wrap round off the nose if you're plain and you can use sandpaper to smooth it out as well try to make sure that your fuselage especially the tail section is as straight as possible otherwise your plane will fly crooked now that we have all the pieces it's time to rubber band them together rubber band your tail piece on like this and make sure that it's lined up straight take a few bits of foam and then stack them under the tail piece this will give the horizontal stabilizer a slight downward angle next use some more rubber bands to attach the wing if your rubber bands aren't long enough you can connect them together like this make sure there's a distance of 15 in between the Leading Edge of the wing and the Leading Edge of the horizontal stabilizer the final step is to tape some weight onto the nose of your plane ideally your plane should balance somewhere between 1 to 2 in back from the Leading Edge of the wing and finally your plane is finished ideally it should weigh somewhere between 65 and 110 G as we discussed in our previous video about the basics of airplane design this would give it a wing Cube loading somewhere between 3 and five so now that we have our plane Let's Go Fly a good glider flight should look like this with the aircraft descending in a straight line at a constant speed it's best to fly when there's little to no wind to get a good glider flight you need three three things first you need to throw your plane straight and level like you're throwing a dart try not to let it rotate in your hand as you release it if you throw it at too much of an upward angle your plane will just nose dive the second thing you need to do to get a good flight is you need to throw your plane at the correct speed this depends on how fast you've designed your plane to fly which we talked about in our previous video about basic airplane design if you throw your plane too fast it could steer up and then dive likewise if you throw your plane too slowly it'll steer down and just go right into the ground we'll talk about why that is in a later video even if you're sure that you're throwing the plane right there's still one more thing you need to get a good flight and that is that you need to have the weight distributed correctly if your plane has a tendency to always steer down there's too much weight on the front a plane that has too much weight on the front is said to be nose heavy you can fix this problem by taking weight off the nose or by moving weight backwards another thing you can do to fix a nose heavy plane is to add more pieces of foam under the horizontal stabilizer this gives the horizontal stabilizer a greater downwards angle and helps steer the plane up more if your plane always has a tendency to steer up that means that there's too much weight on the back a plane that has too much weight on the back is said to be tail heavy this can be fixed by either putting more weight on the nose or by moving weight forwards you can also fix a tail heavy plane by taking pieces of foam out from under the horizontal stabilizer this gives the horizontal stabilizer less of a downwards angle and makes the plane steer up less once you get the hang of flying your plane you can start experimenting with some different designs you can experiment with different designs by changing the weight of the plane the size and shape of the Wings the length and size of the tail and the amount of camber and dihedral as you try different designs observe changes in the speed of the plane the distance it flies the amount of time it stays airborne and how well it flies in a straight line to get you started I provided a link in the description to our previous video about the basics of model airplane design in which we discuss how different design choices affect the way that your airplane flies over the next several videos we're going to be learning about more aerospace engineering Concepts including lift drag stability and structures and going to be learning how to make our planes fly better farther and longer if you're excited to start designing your own airplanes don't forget to like And subscribe for more videos and thanks for watching

Channel: Design Your Own Airplanes

Views: 3,295

Keywords: Glider, Airplane, Plane, Model, Homemade, Home Made, DIY, Do it yourself, Scratch Build, Scratch Built, Flight, Glide, Aerospace, Engineering, Design, Airplanes, Planes, Foam, Foam Board, Chuck Glider, Science, Project, Wing, Tail, Fuselage, RC, Remote Control, Hobby, Camber, Dihedral, Hot Glue, Glue, Tape, Weight, Knife, Cut, Cutting, Rubber Band, Rubber Bands, RC Plane, Inexpensive, Cheap, Easy, Simple, Beginner, First

Id: YzqS_NjTxps

Length: 10min 11sec (611 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 19 2023