RC Paper Airplane for $16 (20 minute build time)

by DadVenture | February 19, 2017 | (5) Posted in Challenges

I love investing in my kids through play and discovery. I also love RC flight. I had this idea knocking around in my head for a few weeks and finally pulled the trigger on making it happen. I've been inspired by Flite Test challenges in the past and it was so fun to take on one of my own. After a few fails we hit on something that works quite well considering our design constraints:

  1. Under $20 total cost
  2. Under 20 minute build time


Our design started with a min quadcopter taped to a simple paper airplane and morphed into something that looks more like a drone. You can see the sort video about our design journey here: 

In the end we were able to create something that really did work well considering our constraints. Here is a build-instructions video for those who are interested:

KEY RESOURCES:

I have a printable template here for those of you who want to make your own.

This is a link to the mini quadcopter we used: http://amzn.to/2lmeo8V 
...which is fun to fly just as a quad in its own right!


The next steps for improvement would be getting the stearing more undercontrol. At the current state of the design you can lean the plane left and right a little but it would have to really loop to make a full turn. I think the answer will either be in a more pronounced diheadral or in hacking into the quadcopter a little more and placing the props further from the center which would allow their differential thrust to provide more control in the yaw axis.

I would love to hear your inputs and see any of the communite's upgrades to this inital attemp at a REDICULOUSLY inexpensive and easy-to-build plane that actually flies. 

 

COMMENTS

Kurt0326 on March 6, 2017
Excellent repurposing skills. Fantastic getting the family involved in the experiment too, they learned a lot. Keep on going.
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DadVenture on March 7, 2017
Thank you Kurt! That is one of the things I have liked about flite test (the family friendly vibe) One day when my kids are old enough to appreciate it I will likely try to make it to a Flite Fest.
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TurtlesThatFly on March 6, 2017
i should make a big one
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DadVenture on March 7, 2017
Go for it! I would love to see how it works out. :-)
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RC Paper Airplane for $16 (20 minute build time)