PLAirplane glider/rubberband flier by Rockthill

Last crawled date: 3 years ago

This is a simple plane to build and cover and easy project for age 8+
VERY CURRENT, WORK IN PROGRESS!! MORE PICS COMING SOON, VIDEO OF MY SECOND BUILD AFTER THAT ON MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL, anyone who builds one before end of march may have it featured in my video if you send pics/videos!!!
Updates: 2/26/16 updated right & left wing rib files to fix build tightness on top rear notches, thinned them by one layer and updated helping hands accordingly. 2/27/16 made gear more realistic size.
WHAT YOU NEED
Need to outsource balsa wood 1/8" rods, glue, and covering then print:
17 total body ribs, 24 total wing ribs and tailfin builds a glider
add gear parts and Styrofoam floats for float glider, or
add nose cone, a few paper clips, rubber band and a prop for a band glider.
R/Cers there are included ailerons for micro setups!
Notes: On my printer (which isn't working so great right now) this works out to 3 and 4-layer parts (mostly) so the whole thing took about 1/8 spool of filament and all of it prints in about 4 hours for the basic model. I used 80% infill for little more strength and had to turn the infill to 0 degrees from 45 for the control&gear2 file only. I'd love to see how pretty it could be from a properly working printer...
Assembly:
Step 1: if using landing gear glue gear to front & back of fuse part 4, if using floats glue gear to front of fuse part 3 and rear of part 5.
Step 2: All the fuselage parts are numbered on back, or check DIAGRAM.stl and start by sliding them in order into the helping hands parts, press the balsa rods into the notches starting with side notches, assemble entire length with all rods in place and remove helping hands pieces BEFORE gluing rods to ribs (a rubber band every other rib section helps hold loose spots in until ready to glue)
Step 3: Use helping hands pieces to assemble wing sections similarly to fuselage, or see DIAGRAM.stl, BUILD BOTH 12 Piece halves separately and flat!
Step 4: glue wing halves together by placing one wing half on flat surface then sandwiching a balsa rod longer than the wings (this for mounting later) in between wing halves, and supporting one side until the tops touch and can be glued together, the ends of the raised side should be level and about 1 1/4" or 3cm off of the surface
Step 5:slide fins onto rear of fuselage and glue in place.
Step 6: hand sand any rough corners or edges smooth, then cover with any heat shrink material, and use hairdryer to shrink tight to frame. tape rudder fin behind last upright on fuse with one vertical piece of tape on each side, so it can be bent for maneuvering later.
Step 7: if using rubber band flier install propeller with shaped clip in nose part and install band and clip in back rib of fuselage. If not glue oval washer to front of fuselage.
Step 8: use rubber bands to secure wings in place and tape pieces to balance plane so that it balances side to side at the center of the fuselage, and front to back at about the middle of the wings.
Step 9: GIVE IT A TOSS! you're done except for fine tuning, which will be part of a soon to come video on my youtube channel
ADDENDUM: if you are an R/Cer there are control surfaces as part of this print secure them where needed with tape similar to the rudder, add your Rx, micro servos and motor and send me some video!! There should be enough play in the tailfin that's whole if there isn't cut it on its groove and use tape as with the other control surfaces