Building and Flying Model Gliders and Rubber-powered Planes

This Wikibook will describe how to model gliders and rubber powered planes.

Contents

Introduction

Model gliders made out of paper and rubber powered planes fascinating toys. This book will describe how to build and fly these.

Part 1: Gliders from Paper

The first step is to build a simple paper glider such as the one shown. Cut the tabs at the back of the wing as shown in the diagram. These will be used to trim the paper plane, that is to adjust the wings so that the plane will fly level.

Why won't the paper plane fly straight without any adjustments? Just like its real life counterparts, the model plane may have inaccuracies in its construction- we call this the air frame, and will need to be trimmed, that is, adjusted in flight to make it fly correctly. For most single engined propeller planes, however, adjustments need to be made to counteract the effect of the slipstream from the propeller, different forces being felt at different speeds and power settings, as well as adjusting the plane so that it does not climb or dive.

Launch the paper plane holding it level. In the case of my paper plane...

Part 2 : Model Aircraft building

Durability issues

Engineering for impact resistance

Part 3 : Rubber Powered Free Flight Models

Rubber powered planes intro

Sheet balsa models

Alternatives to sheet Balsa

Built Up Balsa models