787 small scale foam board plane

Wes Vasher

Member
I've always wanted to do an airliner so I figured I'd start small. I have no idea how it'll fly, probably not great because it's scale, even the control surfaces are scale. My first ever plane with flaps too, not sure what affect they will have. Hopefully fly it this weekend. 1170mm wingspan.

_DSC0001.JPG _DSC0002.JPG Fullscreen capture 952013 93730 PM.jpg
 

Foam Addict

Squirrel member
Very nice, that looks like something even I could build!
Moderately scale, yet easy to build, and a great design.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Looks great but it also looks like the wing loading is going to be high...it's probably going to want to be flown and landed pretty fast.

on edit:Maybe not, the center section has decent chord. The second picture threw me off a little...
 
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Foam Addict

Squirrel member
I think that it should be okay, especially with those inboard flaps. If it were an EDF, I might be worried, but not with a prop.
 

Wes Vasher

Member
boeing-787-8.jpg

This has a pretty beefy power plant, so I think if I point her to the sky and give her a good toss she'll get up there no problem. Once she's up, how well she handles, well we shall see. Hopefully I'll get some video. I'll get keychain onboard footage for sure.

For the size and weight, there's not much wing area.

The one thing I did change is I removed the dihedral in the horizontal stabilizer, just to make it a little easier to build. Rigging up the split elevators from one servo is going to be the trickiest part of this. I already tried it with an internal servo and it was not pretty so I'll try external. And my fuselage is a little narrower than the real plane.
 
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xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
I think that it should be okay, especially with those inboard flaps. If it were an EDF, I might be worried, but not with a prop.
Yeah, I amended it after going back and looking more carefully! That second picture and the angle in the cad drawing, threw me off by it looking like a very slender wing for the estimated weight. The prop will definitely be a big help if power is needed in a hurry! I can't wait to see it fly!

as far as the split elevators go: I've seen many guys build a joiner for the halves out of wire like "[" with the short legs mounted in the elevators parallel to the elevator. Now add a control horn to the center, pointed up or down like a normal control horn would be, and run your servo linkage to that and you now have control of both halves with one servo. Most of the setups I've seen like this were made out of thin metal plate for the horn and 1 piece of wire for the joiner so they could be soldered together but I think it could be done other ways that might work better for your plane, too. Does this make sense in words? I don't have any pics handy and I'm in a hotel room ATM so I can't show you...
 

Wes Vasher

Member
Yeah, I amended it after going back and looking more carefully! That second picture and the angle in the cad drawing, threw me off by it looking like a very slender wing for the estimated weight. The prop will definitely be a big help if power is needed in a hurry! I can't wait to see it fly!

as far as the split elevators go: I've seen many guys build a joiner for the halves out of wire like "[" with the short legs mounted in the elevators parallel to the elevator. Now add a control horn to the center, pointed up or down like a normal control horn would be, and run your servo linkage to that and you now have control of both halves with one servo. Most of the setups I've seen like this were made out of thin metal plate for the horn and 1 piece of wire for the joiner so they could be soldered together but I think it could be done other ways that might work better for your plane, too. Does this make sense in words? I don't have any pics handy and I'm in a hotel room ATM so I can't show you...

That was what I was originally going to do, but the elevators angle backwards, couldn't figure out how to make a [ wire work. I ended up just using a control horn on each and running pushrods to a single servo quick connect. It seems to work okay for now.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
That was what I was originally going to do, but the elevators angle backwards, couldn't figure out how to make a [ wire work. I ended up just using a control horn on each and running pushrods to a single servo quick connect. It seems to work okay for now.
I was thinking it had a flying stab on it where the rearward angle wouldn't matter. The wire would be the pivot...
Your method seems like it will work, though!
 

FlyingMonkey

Bought Another Trailer
Staff member
Admin
You don't shape it like a "[" think more of an elongated "{" where it looks more like a tuning fork.