Help with School Project

[norvin20dV2]

Hello Flite Test Forum

I wanted some help in designing a Rc plane for my Personal Project for school, and i am very stuck. I wanted to make a RC plane, that resembles something of a UAV, but is very simple to build and fly. I can use wooden dowels for a spar and i am only limited to 5 sheets of A2 foam board. I was thinking to use 2 sheets for the wing, one sheet for each side and around 2 for the fuselage, and the other sheet for the Tail Plane and other stuff. I am very stuck and i have designed an RC plane in the past, but it crashed instantly. I also have access to a 3D printer as i was thinking i could design my own motor mount and print it. If you guys could help me with this, that would be great.

I have all the electronics
-3s 2200mAh battery
-2212 2200kv motor (i have two of these)
-40a esc with BEC (and i also have 2 of these)
-8 9g servos, but i only want to use 4 because i want to keep my plane simple and just use the conventional ailerons, elevator and rudder
- any prop that you recommend, i had a 8x8, but that broke.
- y leads and extension cables
- nuts and bolts for motor and stuff
- Flysky FS-i6X and FS-1a6b

If you guys could help me or give me advice to start with my project that would be great as it is due in July. And if possible, I wanted it to carry a light projectile made of LW- PLA and drop it such as a large nerf dart, and that is only if the aircraft is able to fly.

Thanks a lot,
Norvin

 

[quorneng]

norvin20dV2
First if you have no experience in RC flight then you are tackling a difficult project that will reduce the chances of success.
Are there any FlightTest designs that you could use? At least you know they have all the necessary features to fly.
Is the board you have the standard FlightTest type?
With the components you have it should be possible to make a plane that should fly but remember the heavier it is the faster it will have to go and the harder it will be to control.
The most important and highly stressed part is the wing. You will have to decide how it is going to be made and its shape.
Narrow long span glider type wings are efficient but broad short wings of the same area are less efficient but stronger and easier to make.

If you have a concept drawing of what you intend it will be far easier to advise on what might work, what changes might make it work work better or what is no good at all.
Sorry to be so vague but as a school project you not only aim to achieve the objectives but also to understand why you made the choices you did.

 

[vhandon]

You may want to check out the Noob Tube from Experimental Airlines.

There is a lot of good info in the older videos, especial around the Armin Wing.

 

[NickRehm]

I'd recommend building a design that is already proven to fly well like @quorneng suggested. That way if it crashes, you know it is likely pilot error and not a fatal design flaw. With a custom design right out the bat, you'll never know if it crashed because you don't have much flying experience, or if it was a difficult plane to fly from the start.

With all the parts, you could knock out a simple flite test build in a weekend. Then after you're up in the air, start thinking about your own design. A wood spar and 2 layers of foam will be plenty strong for a wing. And you'll want a smaller prop for that motor like a 6x4 so you don't burn it out

 

[Piotrsko]

Gonna hate this reply but: YOU WANT A TRAINER. Big , slow, self stable that will recover from most mistakes above 10 ft altitude. Points given if it will get to 100 ft altitude without control input.

Yes you could build one of Sponz's brit designs, but the life expectancy of that is less than 10 seconds.

 

[danskis]

All the above advice is excellent. You have to ask yourself what your primary goal is - do you want it to fly, do you want it to look like some design you have in your head, do you want it to be easy to build or do you want it to drop bombs. The more complicated the answer and the more constraints you put on the design you will have less chance of success. Say you just want it to fly. Then you should focus on that. Build a proven design and then - no small accomplishment - learn how to fly it. Can you satisfy the assignment by getting someone else to fly it - do you know any pilots?

Here are some designs you can download the plans for free. If you don't build from the plans you can at least copy the wing shape/sizes and fuselage moments. They will give you the correct center of gravity which is the most important information to have about any design.

FT Slow Stick S250 - Flite Test Community Association

The FT Slow Stick S250 is inspired by the classic early electric flier, GWS Slow Stick, which was the entry point for many new pilots. We wanted to take that iconic plane from the past and bring it back to life. The FT Slow Stick S250 was designed to introduce you to the DIY building and 3D...

ftca.flitetest.com

FT Slow Stick S250 - Flite Test Community Association

The FT Slow Stick S250 is inspired by the classic early electric flier, GWS Slow Stick, which was the entry point for many new pilots. We wanted to take that iconic plane from the past and bring it back to life. The FT Slow Stick S250 was designed to introduce you to the DIY building and 3D...

ftca.flitetest.com

If you have no flight experience and no one to help you maiden it then it will crash. You'll need to rebuild it so picking something easy to repair should be one of your requirements. Count on going through several iterations.

So what have you done right so far? You've asked this community for help and provided a detailed list of your components and resources. I would add BBQ skewers to your list of resources - they are almost as good as carbon fiber and a lot cheaper.

Continuing to engage this community will also increase your chances of success.

 

[norvin20dV2]

I have made a new post, and drawn up something in cad, and gotten the Vtail and the fuselage ribs printed at school. can you see if its a good design. I will put foamboard around the wings and the fuselarge. I am going to use light oak wood wooden dowel from bunnings as my wing spar, and normal kitchen skewers to form and connect the fuselarge ribs, i just need help with choosing the right motor and prop combo if i could get helo with that, the weight is estimated to be around 900-800 grams with all the electronics.

 

[Clintonious]

I have made a new post, and drawn up something in cad, and gotten the Vtail and the fuselage ribs printed at school. can you see if its a good design. I will put foamboard around the wings and the fuselarge. I am going to use light oak wood wooden dowel from bunnings as my wing spar, and normal kitchen skewers to form and connect the fuselarge ribs, i just need help with choosing the right motor and prop combo if i could get helo with that, the weight is estimated to be around 900-800 grams with all the electronics.

Hopefully not too late... but it looks like you have zero dihedral. That will make it less stable. Unless you have had good experience in the past with flying RC, you may want to consider 3D printing something that can put some dihedral into your wing. As for the rest of your plan, do you need the strength from the foam? At this point, I'm wondering if you might just wrap it with some monokote and get out the heat gun! Of course maybe you could make two and use foam on one and the mono on another! Good luck and post pics if you build it!

 

[murinafly]

Hopefully not too late... but it looks like you have zero dihedral. That will make it less stable. Unless you have had good experience in the past with flying RC, you may want to consider 3D printing something that can put some dihedral into your wing. As for the rest of your plan, do you need the strength from the foam? At this point, I'm wondering if you might just wrap it with some monokote and get out the heat gun! Of course maybe you could make two and use foam on one and the mono on another! Good luck and post pics if you build it!

I wonder what happened in the end. I constantly asked people for help with school projects, but mine were easier. I just don’t understand how you can create such a project yourself at that age. Just so you understand, I even looked for a writing service at school and used https://ca.edubirdie.com/ for this. Therefore, I don’t even know what I would do if I was given such a project. It's just beyond my imagination really.