Good day – Just signed up with the hope of finding some good designs for glider projects. I am supporting adults with learning disabilities so plans must be simple and easy to follow, materials are basically what I can find laying around, so cereal boxes mostly. I’d love to build something fairly large (approx. 1 meter long) that will fly really well. If anyone can point me in the direction of some good plans / templates, that would be appreciated.
Hello - and looking for basic carboard glider designs
- Thread starter Droog
- Start date
akimbo
Active member
What are the dimensions of the cereal boxes you are planning to use? Also, it could take anywhere from 4 to 7 boxes to make a large glider like that. If I know the dimensions I could make some plans for you but, If you don't have enough boxes, I would recommend picking up some readi board from the local dollar tree. The only downside to foamboard is that you would have to do a lot more cutting and you would have to use hot glue instead of tape. Building a glider that is large will also most likely require some sort of rigid material inside the wing such as a large BBQ skewer. I also found this on YouTube if you want to try making something like this:
keep in mind that I am pretty knew to flying and there are plenty of people on here with a ton of experience that could provide you with better information, I just didn't see any replies yet so I thought I would give you my two cents.
Thanks man, really appreciate your reply. That video is the kind of thing I'm looking for. I have loads of boxes, people have been collecting them for me. Some plans would be great as I don't really have a clue. I like the idea of the gull wing angle, not sure how to go about this. I have some bamboo I can use too. The cereal boxes are regular size so approx 30 cm tall by 22 cm by 10cm, something like that but different ones. I have a massive box that shelves or something were delivered in too, but its that corrugated stuff.
Piotrsko
Master member
Not so much for slow where it is actually an advantage. Does matter faster than 100 kts.
quorneng
Master member
Not a glider but I did build a 40 inch 'four panel' cardboard wing for my "hack" pusher Wing Dragon fuselage as a test
What you find is that cereal packet cardboard whilst structurally strong in tension is poor in compression. This indicated it would need significant support to prevent buckling under compression forces.
My solution was to use closely spaced flooring underlay foam ribs at the wing root where the compression forces are a maximum.
There is no spar as such just foam shear webs. All the forces are taken by the carboard skin.
The outer wing panels, which included ailerons, needed less rib support.
Each panel once fully skinned was joined to its neighbour by a narrow external cardboard strip.
It certainly flew.
The grass was covered in frost hence the "slippery" landings and "slide" belly take offs.
In my opinion cereal packet cardboard is not an ideal model plane material so it is likely to need quite some reinforcement (carbon tube?) in a simple 'easy build' structure.
What you find is that cereal packet cardboard whilst structurally strong in tension is poor in compression. This indicated it would need significant support to prevent buckling under compression forces.
My solution was to use closely spaced flooring underlay foam ribs at the wing root where the compression forces are a maximum.
There is no spar as such just foam shear webs. All the forces are taken by the carboard skin.
The outer wing panels, which included ailerons, needed less rib support.
Each panel once fully skinned was joined to its neighbour by a narrow external cardboard strip.
It certainly flew.
In my opinion cereal packet cardboard is not an ideal model plane material so it is likely to need quite some reinforcement (carbon tube?) in a simple 'easy build' structure.
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