design

My most recent project has been adapting an old balsa design into foamboard, arrows, plywood, and balsa. It will use the FT Monster Radial Motor with a 16x8x3 prop (scale size), and will feature retracts, flaps, and scale lighting. I'm trying out a couple new construction techniques with this...

Okay, I'm having the stupids today. I know everything just comes down to "arm X weight" but all my experience moving CG has been in loading. How do I calculate how far more fwd the motor needs to come to put the plane into proper CG? I know I could do this through trial and error but since I...

I am interested in anyone who is familiar with CAD that could create a couple stl files that could benefit the entire community. I am building a project that requires connecting carbon arrow shafts together to create a frame type cage for an RC air boat. I need a few 90° fittings and a few "T"...

Hi, apologies if this is in the wrong section, but I'm hoping to source some input and suggestions on my ideas for an upcoming indoor flying challenge in my uni class. The challenge is to build a foamie that can fly within the constraints of an indoor basketball court, with a takeoff then a...

Recently I have been experimenting with using Adobe Illustrator to design foam planes and it has worked well however, there are a few limitations. This includes most complex shapes such as round or beveled fuselages, smooth airfoils, and detailed nose cones. That is why I have decided to attempt...

As a successor to my flawed mini guinea, I have decided to build a better plane, improving on the weak points of the mini guinea. This will be a bn-2 Islander, slightly modded to have a cargo door. Since the Islander had oversized wings and empennage, I have decided to leave it scale for the...

Hi everyone, I've been building and flying Flite Test planes for about 6 months now, and I'm currently lucky enough to be in school, not online. I feel pretty confident in both my flying and designing abilities. I have a study hall currently planned for my second semester in high school (10th...

Cessna A/T-37 - Papercraft Method Lately I've been looking into different methods of design design inspiration and final product outcomes. I'm referring to tape colored tape color printed skins spray painting and other covering methods for planes as well as design methods for the Master series...

Hey there! I'm new to this forum. Ive purchased and built some FliteTest trainers and some other rc planes. Now I want to design an rc plane of my own and not buy it. How should I go about this, and are there any videos on how to do this? Thanks and I can't wait to become part of the FliteTest...

This should be an interesting build off to see what is possible with foam board. Personally, I find 3d and XA to be very fun, but extremely expensive. Even a ~50" airframe can run you up to 200$- not including electronics. Wouldn't it be great if we could build our own airframes for less than...

I've been interested in resin based printing almost as long as I've been interested in FDM (filament based) printing. In fact before I got my first printer when I was researching cheap ways to build my own I considered a DLP resin printer design a few times and backed the failed Peachy printer...

I'd love to see an article or get some guidance on designing planes for print on 3D printers. Even to just design parts for existing planes. What are people using? What are the pitfalls of free compared to 'for purchase' software? What about learning curves? Ease of use? (this list can probably...

I am looking to try my hand at foam board aircraft design so I can fly it over the summer and gain some experience. I have built a few of the FliteTest aircraft in the past so have some experience in building, but have never designed one myself, and am looking for interesting project ideas...

I am in the process of making some custom designs using a mix of CorelDRAW, Sketchup, and Fusion 360 however, I was curious if anyone knew what Flitetest uses? I'm not necessarily interested in copying their methods but I would be curious to see how they approach taking a 3d design into a 2d...

Anyone attempt it? I have a Testors hard plastic model to build for me other half (The Black Bird is her baby!). Suddenly in my mind I saw the long body and integrated wings and tall rudders of this bird in brown foam board. But not two, but two EDF's in each long engine pod. 1. How do you...

Hello, I am relatively new to flying wing design and I am trying to understand the design process. In order to choose an airfoil, I created a small MATLAB script working with XFoil to select one between some of the NACA5 (reflex) foils. According to my requirements (very large thickness...

I actually posted this question in the " 2018 Flite Test Forum Challenge: WWII Design & Build" thread and thought it might get lost in there so I copied the post out into it's own thread. Here it is: I was just curious, what do other forum members think of the idea of adding quarterly design &...

Well hello! I've been watching FT videos for a while now and finally decided to get my feet wet. My first build was a mini mustang, but I soon realized it was too heavy to fly...it was made out of elmers foam board. After 6 months of waiting, the local dollar tree finally stocked white foam...

After doing quite a few builds following peoples plans, Wanting to do some full custom plane builds. Wondering how much time people put into designing put into calculations, and theory to get it flying right. Or is it mostly guess and check. Going what feels right, and trying again if it...