How to Build an Easy and Inexpensive Model Airplane that Flies

hi everyone welcome to the first episode of design your own airplanes this channel is dedicated to making your own model airplanes that actually fly with a specific emphasis in airplane design so if you're interested in airplanes and you're looking for a science fair project or something fun to do with your kids or even just a fun weekend project then you're in the right place in this series of videos we're going to be experimenting with aerospace engineering principles using simple gliders these gliders are hand launched and fly much like paper airplanes they are made from common inexpensive materials that can be purchased at most hardware stores we're going to be learning how to make planes that can look like anything you want them to you might want to go with a more conventional looking design or you might want a crazy looking design as we go we'll also be learning about aerospace engineering principles and how to apply them to optimize the flight performance of your aircraft we'll be learning to make airplanes that can either be slow and floaty or that can be sleek and fast finally we'll learn how to optimize our designs to maximize their range and flight time in this video we're going to be learning how to make this Baseline glider configuration our objectives in this video are to First teach you the basic building techniques so that you can start making your own plans and second to give you a reliable airplane design from which you can start experimenting with your own designs a key characteristic of this plane is that it is designed to be modular this means that it can be divided into several components or modules that can easily be connected or separated the first advantage of this approach is that it makes it easy to experiment with different designs that you might want to try when you want to modify your design to try to get a better flight performance you can easily remove parts of your plane and replace them with different ones without having to build a whole new aircraft the second advantage of a modular design is that it makes the airplane easy to repair experimenting with new airplane designs does put you in a position where accidents are common If part of your plane is damaged it's very easy to remove and replace the damaged part without having to build a whole new plane but that's enough talk let's get building before we begin we'll go over a list of the building materials and tools that you'll need the first thing you'll need is a sheet of Adam's ready board which is also referred to as foam board this can be purchased at Dollar Tree second you're going to need a quarter inch square wooden dowel these can be found in the lumber department of most hardware stores additionally I recommend that when you're selecting a dowel you look down the length of it and try to choose the straightest one that you can find the third thing that you're going to need is a pack of zip ties these can usually be found in the electrical department at the hardware store the fourth thing you're going to need for your plane is some weights I chose some 3 8 inch nuts and bolts that I found in the Fasteners aisle at the hardware store you could also use other small heavy objects for weight such as batteries or fishing sinkers fifth you're going to need some bits of scrap wood I grabbed a popsicle stick and finally you're going to need a rubber band you might also want to have a roll of wide Scotch tape but this part's optional so now that we've got all of our building materials let's talk about what tools we're going to need the first tool you're going to need is an X-Acto Knife for cutting the foam board additionally you'll need some extra blades you might also want to have a cutting mat to go along with it so you don't cut into your table the next thing that you're going to need is a glue gun and some extra glue sticks I've got a pretty large glue gun but even a small one will work for this project to cut the wooden dowels you'll need a small saw and it will also be helpful to have a miter box you might also want to have a block of sandpaper as well finally you're gonna need something to tighten down your zip ties and trim off the excess I'm going to be using a small pair of pliers it might also be helpful to have a small kitchen scale for weighting your glider at the end now that we have all of our building materials and tools let's start the construction start by marking the outlines of your foam pieces and then cutting them out with your exacto knife for the wing you'll need a piece with a 30 inch wingspan which is about the width of a foam board sheet and a 5 inch cord for the horizontal stabilizer you'll need a piece 10 inches wide with a 3 inch root cord and a two inch tip cord for the vertical stabilizer you'll need a piece four and a half inches tall also with a two inch tip cord and a three inch root cord you can also experiment with different wing and tail shapes if you want a different look for your airplane we're going to be learning more about that in the next video next we're going to be waterproofing the wing and tail this step is optional but it might help your plane last a bit longer start by peeling the paper off of the foam board to save some weight you can also leave it on for Extra Strength next crush the leading and trailing edges of the wing and tail pieces to make them more streamlined lay down a piece of tape on the leading and trailing edges and then fold it over to help them keep their shape lay down tape over the rest of the foam and then trim off the excess now that we have our wing and tail pieces waterproofed we're going to add some camber to the wing camber is a slight curve in the wing that helps it create more lifting Force we're going to be talking about how this works in a later video make a cut along the top of the wing two inches from the Leading Edge you'll want to cut through the tape on the top of the wing and the foam but do not cut through the tape on the bottom of the wing this should leave you with a nice hinge at this point we're going to take our wooden boom and we're going to lay it down underneath the wing along the hinge just like that this creates camber by putting a slight curve into the wing fill the crack with hot glue to help the wing keep its shape try to squirt the glue down as deep into the Gap as possible you can also take your knife and trim off some of the foam to make the Gap a bit wider you can experiment with different amounts of camber in Your Wings by making more or less of a curve we're going to be talking about how this affects the way that your airplane flies in a few later videos at this point you can also round off the corners of the wing so that they don't crumple as much if you have a hard Landing now that we have camber in the wing we're going to add dihedral dihedral is when the wing curves upwards like this what this does is it helps prevent the airplane from flipping over in Flight cut a slot in the wing six inches inboard from the wingtip prop something under the wingtip to give it an upward slant and then lay down some glue to hold it in place lay down some more glue into the crack on the underside at this point your wing is finished next cut your wooden book to the appropriate lengths you'll need one piece that's six inches long one four inch piece and one piece that's approximately 26 inches long depending on how much leftover wood you have at this point we finished building all of the pieces of the plane and it's time to start assembling it sand the center of the horizontal stabilizer so that the glue will stick to the tape glue your four inch piece of wood onto the horizontal stabilizer so that half an inch sticks out on each end next glue the vertical stabilizer to the middle of the horizontal stabilizer making sure that it's straight rough up the tape in the center of the wing as well lay down a bead of glue across the wing and then glue the six inch wooden dowel into the middle again make sure that half an inch sticks out on either side if the Gap caused by your camber is a little large you can add some triangles of foam to fill it Mount the tail piece on the back of the 26 inch boom and use a zip tie on the front side to secure it in place use the rubber band to secure the back end of the tail cut out a few pieces of scrap wood and then place them at the back of the plane between the boom and the tail this will give the horizontal stabilizer a slight downward angle next zip tie the wing onto the boom make sure that the Leading Edge of the wing and the Leading Edge of the horizontal stabilizer are 15 inches apart you can also experiment with different tail lengths which we'll be talking about in a later video at this point you're almost done but there's still one problem and that's that there is too much weight on the back of the airplane to compensate we're going to have to add some more weight onto the front of the plane add some weight at the front of the plane to offset the way to the back also insert some pieces of scrap wood to prevent the zip ties from digging into the wooden boom so that you can move the weight forwards and backwards if you need to and finally your plane is finished at this point it should ideally weigh somewhere between 90 grams and 120 grams we'll talk about how we got those numbers in the next video you can also decorate it with colorful tape and markers but for now let's go fly to get a good flight you'll need three things the first is that you need to throw your plane straight and level similar to throwing a dart if you throw your plane at too much of a downward angle it'll just go straight into the ground and if you throw your plane at too much of an upward angle it'll slow down and then go into a dive the second thing that you need to do to make sure you have a good flight is to make sure that you have the weight distributed correctly if you have too much weight on the front of your plane it will tend to steer downwards this is what's called being nose heavy you can compensate for this by removing weight from the nose or by sliding the weight backwards you can also compensate by putting more pieces of scrap wood under the tail to give the horizontal stabilizer more of a downward angle on the other hand if you have too much weight to the back of the plane it will have a tendency to steer up and then fall out of the sky this is what's called being tail heavy you can correct this by adding more weight on the front or by sliding the weight further forwards you can also take pieces of scrap wood out from under the tail to give the horizontal stabilizer less of a downward angle it's also possible that your plane has a tendency to steer to one side you can compensate for this by taping coins or washers onto the opposite Wing to balance it out the third thing you need to do to get a good flight is that you need to throw your airplane at the correct speed if you throw your airplane too fast it will have a tendency to steer up so that it slows down and if you throw your airplane too slow it will go into a dive to pick up speed so that's it you've learned how to build your own plane and how to make it fly in our next video we're going to start learning the basics of airplane design so if you're excited to start creating your own airplane designs don't forget to like And subscribe for more videos thanks for watching

Channel: Design Your Own Airplanes

Views: 35,955

Keywords: Airplane, Airplanes, Glider, Gliders, Foam, Foam board, foamboard, diy, homemade, home made, scratch build, scratch built, scratch, wood, wooden, hobby, science, aircraft, project, tape, zip-ties, zip ties, flight, flying, flies, glide, gliding, home-made, scratch-built, scratch-build, experiment, experimental, toy, construction, building, demonstration, Do-it-yourself, do it yourself, plane, aerospace, engineering, design, airplane design, model, model airplane, model airplanes, scale

Id: Oon8slF9i5c

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023