Wings ‘n Things

September 10, 2012 | Radio Controlled Airplanes | By: Mark VandeWettering

Early on Sunday I was out at Home Depot and acquired some additional raw materials for my RC plane construction projects. I got a 4×8 foot sheet of 0.5″ pink foam, a 36″ chunk of 2″ angle iron, and a new 4 foot steel ruler (I know I had one somewhere, but darned if I could find it.) Anyway, after my experiment with making a square box fuselage, I thought I would try making a wing with an “Armin” wing, as shown in the YouTube videos of Experimental Airlines.

It took me about 10 minutes to put together this 30″ wing, with a 6″ chord.



This is the simplified version of the wing, which has a trailing edge which is two thickness of foam board, and does not include an integrated elevator. The construction followed these directions almost entirely:



I didn’t get the tape down as smoothly as might have been hoped, but it still looks pretty good. I’ll next try the improved version with the tapered trailing edge, and maybe a carbon arrowshaft stiffener (although this wing seems plenty strong.)

Comments

Comment from Dan Lyke
Time 9/10/2012 at 1:58 pm

Back in the ’80s there was a period with those little overpowered 2 cycle engines where people were building airframes out of corrugated cardboard. This looks way nicer than many of those aircraft…

Comment from Lee
Time 9/20/2012 at 5:10 pm

1907 Kitty Hawk simulator at the LA County fair compared to my RC plane flight record. Kitty Hawk simulator…. succesful flight. Every RC plane I have ever tried to fly…crashed. The Kitty Hawk simulator was cool because you actually laid down on a contraption that let you control the flight surfaces as if you were strapped into the plane. Hips flex the wings for turning and left hand stick for climing or decending, looking straight ahead into a very large monitor for visuals. Very cool.
I think this is what I need. A nose camera on the RC plane and a heads up display to orient me to the flight conditions ahead. I’ll work on that.