redbarton origami one piece plane

redbarton

Active member
I've mentioned this elsewhere and figured it was time to get a build thread started for my one piece origami plane. As you can see, the main fuselage/wing/v-tail is all one piece of intact foam. There are lots of folds, bevels, and hinges involved. I thought it would be a fun challenge to see what I could come up with. I even designed in a KF airfoil and some dihedral. What do you think?

IMG_20200202_101619180.jpg IMG_20200202_103059397.jpg IMG_20200202_103115690_HDR.jpg IMG_20200202_112057595.jpg

It sort of feels like cheating, but I have to work with what I've got. So, I glued a mini power pod adapter box to the nose. That way I can switch the pod between my Mini Scout and this. They are about the same size.

IMG_20200202_190016033.jpg

This was a phase one prototype. I might just turn it into a glider. The phase II re-design is already in progress. I removed the little wing spurs, because they'll just end up getting bent anyway. I'm sticking with triangles and straight lines still with this one, but it will have more "curvish looking" wing tips. Also, I've added some backward sweep in the wing. More pics soon!
 
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FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I've mentioned this elsewhere and figured it was time to get a build thread started for my one piece origami plane. As you can see, the main fuselage/wing/v-tail is all one piece of intact foam. There are lots of folds, bevels, and hinges involved. I thought it would be fun challenge to see what I could come up with. I even designed in a KF airfoil and some dihedral. What do you think?

View attachment 157401 View attachment 157400 View attachment 157399 View attachment 157398

It sort of feels like cheating, but I have to work with what I've got. So, I glued a mini power pod adapter box to the nose. This way I can switch the pod between my Mini Scout and this. They are about the same size.

View attachment 157397

This was a phase one prototype. I might just turn it into a glider. The phase II re-design is already in progress. I removed the little wing spurs, because they'll just end up getting bent anyway. I'm sticking with triangles and straight lines still with this one, but it will have more "curvish looking" wing tips. Also, I've added some backward sweep in the wing. More pics soon!
OK.... You had me at origami.

Do you have a plan? or do I need to take a moment with that picture, and reverse Cadd-ify it (for personal use)
 

redbarton

Active member
OK.... You had me at origami.

Do you have a plan? or do I need to take a moment with that picture, and reverse Cadd-ify it (for personal use)

Yes, I do have a simple PDF plan. I'm currently working on V2. Like I said above, I've refined it a little and also increased the v-tail size a bit. I'll see if I can wrap it up soon and post a PDF plan.

On a related note, my process is design in Sketchup, flatten the 3d model to 2D with the Flattery plugin and export to SVG, open in Inkscape, save to PDF, and print with Adobe Reader. I'd really like to know more about how people add details to the plans and then tile them cleanly. The Adobe poster print option works pretty well, but sometimes there's a few pages that are askew when printed. I'm not really sure what causes this. (And all the extra whitespace/wasted paper drives me nuts!) I'd also like to add the usual details found on a professional looking plan. Any tips or resources that would help me with this would be much appreciated! I want to take this to the next level.
 
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redbarton

Active member
I made some good progress tonight. Just little refinements here and there...

Screenshot_20200210-222659.png

Any suggestions on what else I might tweak? There's a fuselage 100° angle gauge on the left and a fancier mini pod adapter on the right too.
 
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FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
Input together plans, on the way out today based on you picture... I was gonna cut out and build it, but tonight I'm out of time.
IMG_20200211_011916609.jpg

There's always tomorrow.
 

redbarton

Active member
Input together plans, on the way out today based on you picture... I was gonna cut out and build it, but tonight I'm out of time.

There's always tomorrow.

Wow! You did that fast! You'll want to do a steep 30 degree-ish bevel on most everything, except for the long fuselage fold and the fold down wing support tab on top. Those can be about 45, but the wing support fold down tab needs to be on the other side. Also, you have to steeply bevel the end of the wing support strut. Otherwise, you get too much dihedral. And, remove a 3/16 wide slot of foam instead of a bevel for the top nose fold over. The paper just wraps around and you'll see that top nose flap pulls the nose together tight.

I will also add that you'll want to reinforce the pivot hinge in fuselage on both sides with tape. Cut it last too. Otherwise, the paper pulls away from the foam.
 
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redbarton

Active member
Maybe, I took a moment before work again, and cut the bevels to dryfit the assembly.
It looks like a noodle first

But a little work and then it looks great!

Some glue, servos and a power pod and it will be ready.

It's a little fiddley to assemble, but is surprisingly rigid once it is all glued together. Let me know if you recommend any design changes. Your build is going together a little differently. For instance, I simply scored and folded over the KF foil. No bevels there...

This is a really cool plane!! I'm interested to see it fly!!
Thanks! Me too! To be honest, I have chucked the prototype around in the house. It seems to glide pretty well with some nose weight.

I'm tied up for the rest of the week & weekend. So, I hope to build version 2 next week.
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
It's a little fiddley to assemble, but is surprisingly rigid once it is all glued together. Let me know if you recommend any design changes. Your build is going together a little differently. For instance, I simply scored and folded over the KF foil. No bevels there...
I specifically scored the underside of the KFM score and beveled to get a better airfoil (botched it a bit, but I'm not worried.) And the underside of the v tails (vs. The top) for smoother airflow.

I really need to make a smoke, wind tunnel to test models for turbulence. I'm curious to see how each model fairs. Do you have any other ideas?
 

redbarton

Active member
I really need to make a smoke, wind tunnel to test models for turbulence. I'm curious to see how each model fairs. Do you have any other ideas?
How so? About how to test the models for turbulence? Hmm? All I can do is just fly different versions and see which performs the best. Anybody got a spare wind tunnel we can borrow? :p

Or, just about the design in general? Yes, I have other ideas. Version 2 already incorporates a few and I also have some ideas about additional origami-like airframes. Stay tuned...:devilish:
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
How so?... just about the design in general? Yes, I have other ideas. Version 2 already incorporates a few and I also have some ideas about additional origami-like airframes. Stay tuned...:devilish:
Origami inspired Air Frames. (one could argue, that is what a lot of the FT work is.)
your are a little more involved, and all one piece.