Card board instead of foam board

Brendan-ATL

Junior Member
Simple question, i have printed the plans for the mighty mini scout. I was wondering if i could use cardboard instead of the foam board? And if any other ft planes work with cardboard? Thanks,
 

RAM

Posted a thousand or more times
Haven't seen one but see no reason that it can't work. The weight will be different though.
 
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IFlyRCstuff

Flyer Of Many Things
Cardboard is flimsy, so you have to use it going against the grain. It is thinner, so you would havve to modify the plans to accomodate. Main reason, it is flimsy and harder to repair.
NOW FOR THE PART WHERE I SAY THAT YOU CAN. Make sure the the fuselage has the grains (lines) are going long ways along the fuselage, elevetor, rudder, wings. And reinforece with bamboo skewers. Let us know how it goes! HAPPY FLYING!! Don't use epoxy on cardboard, ever. May even wnat to try corrugated plastic, like steal a "vote for me" yard sign. Hehehe... HAPPY FLYING!!:)
 

Brendan-ATL

Junior Member
i scraped up a few dollars and went ahead and ran to the dollartree and got foamboard. i may still try it out and see how the foam is different from the cardboard. how it handles, ect,. thanks for the advice and ill definately keep it in mind when building the cardboard version. ill post pictures when im done, and try to find a buddy to film the maiden flight. (PS im trying to use a lazertoys blue-wonder motor with a 850mh 3s battery, so ill be making modifications for the extra power and weight ect.!)
thanks!
 
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Brendan-ATL

Junior Member
Results So Far

Well, i have the mini scout awaiting its power pack. while waiting on that, i cut out an ft nutball and put the electronics i had already onto it. with this i discovered that my radio has some channel mixing programed onto it. so as i give more throttle it mixes in more up elevator. aswell, when i give elevator input it mixes in rudder. up elevator=left rudder, down elevator=right rudder. because its not programmable, i must wait to get a new dxi6 this xmas as a gift to myself. i found one on horizon hobby with a free receiver. and my final problem was with CG, i had my battery receiver esc and obviously the motor as far forward as possible inside the power pod, however it was still tail heavy. all these factors lead to my maiden flight ending in disaster. the plane actually survived the crash you can see in the video, but i tried once again and looped strait into the ground destroying my fire wall. the epitome of cheap is my control horns that i didn't want to buy anything for so recycled items were used. Quick Tip: larger zipties work well as emergency control horns. enjoy and let me know what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARoZhs-orvg
 
The coroplast will be too heavy for a plane the size of the Scout. There is a whole group of planes designed for coro, they are called SPADs; simple plastic airplane designs. There is a design called the Das Plas Stik that has a piece of of vinyl gutter plate for the fuse and coroplast for the flying surfaces. I have one called the SPAD Stik and it has a fuselage folded out of the coro. My Stik is a great flying plane. I have an MDS .48 glow engine on mine. All that said, coroplast isn't the lightest stuff in the work and not well suited to a small electric plane, unless you want a really fast small electric plane;) You can make up for almost any weight disadvantage with speed and power:cool:

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EDIT: This a 48 inch wingspan with 15 inch chord, so it can actually be pretty floaty.
 
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Graybeard

Junior Member
Years ago, I built a cardboard version of the RCM Basic Bipe and flew it with a hot SuperTiger .29. It was heavy, cumbersome, and slow -- should have had a bigger engine but at the time I didn't have one or the money for one. I gave it to a guy who put a .45 on it and drilled it into the dirt. It was in surprisingly good shape but I don't know what became of it.
Anyway, yes, you can build with cardboard but I think foamboard is lighter and stronger.
 
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To the original poster's question though, there are some pretty cool cardboard planes out there, but you have to build them up a bit to get the structure sufficient. Here's cool control line plane on AMA's website, almost fully constructed of cardboard. http://modelaviation.com/arado

As for the SPADs, they are a hoot. Our club and several other's here in Southern Idaho have begun racing SPADs. I haven't raced yet, but I am thinking about building a Das Plas Stik to race with. It's a less expensive way to get into RC racing without buying or building some super whamodyne balsa wonder. Most guys are running ASP or Magnum engines so it's not a huge loss when one goes in hard. There are a few fellows running OS engines, but it's a sad day when a nice running AX55 takes a dirt nap...

Now that I have thoroughly derailed this post, back to your regularly scheduled programming!