Help! Help with RC plane design

[quorneng]

Nivin
The fact that many here are suggesting some type of foam board is not simply because this web site designs planes that use it but as Merv suggests it is a quick method of building a plane and it is most likely your team will have to make more than one!
Don't worry too much about aerodynamic theory. What is good for full size does not necessarily apply to models.
Pick a simple conventional model design of about the right size and use your design report to detail the 'pros and cons' of your choice. There is no 'perfect' plane design. it is always a compromise between several conflicting requirements.

For example 'hand launching' suggests it does not have to have undercarriage (good it saves weight) but you then have to consider what features are required to avoid damage on landing to the prop or itself, particularly during testing when it is carrying a 'heavy' payload.

 

[Hai-Lee]

Can I use balsa wood instead of Readiboard?

Yes you can but consider that you have no flying experience.
A balsa plane does not handle being crashed very well!
The exercise is in plane design and not in your repair techniques.
A FB plane can have crash and be repaired with glue and tape or at worst a new piece grafted in.
Balsa costs a lot nowadays
FB is used almost everywhere if you are willing to look!
In crashing you need a garbage bag to hold all of the pieces whereas FB at worst is just a few arms full of pieces.
In a balsa plane the skeleton carries all of the flying loads and stresses whereas in a FB plane most of the stresses are carried by the aircraft outer surface.

I recommend to design and build in FB, crash and repair in FB and then if you wish transfer the design to Balsa!

Have fun!

 

[Jon66]

Entering this RC community will be extremely informative, but also mind numbing. No one will demand anything of you, everyone has that freedom. Who can make the best airframe? Who can model and create the most challenging flight patterns? With the ability to obtain everything you need in your area and use the numerous vendors and stores in the surrounding area to sell, it's impossible to spend too much time looking around. But who said there couldn't be some help in the form of help for less experienced users?

ALLEYWAYS

If you're a newcomer to RC and don't know what to look for, my goal is to give you the ability to gain some confidence plane design.