Introduction: Make RC Planes Using A4 Size Papers

By have a look at:
About: I love making and flying RC planes.

This tutorial is about making of an RC plane of which body is made of Paper. This is a lightweight and flyable plane. Doing this project would enhance understanding of the strength of plane. This project does not offer an alternate material to make RC planes that can work as good as conventional material.


In this video, I tried to explain overall plane:


long and boring video on making:

Step 1: Material Required:

Following is the list of material and link where you can find it:

tools:

  • paper cutter
  • geometric toolbox

Step 2: Making Building Block: Triangle Section Sticks

During this project, I made 3 planes in total. these triangle cross sections were the building block of all of them.

The side of these triangle sections is 5mm in size. for better strength, it is better to have the higher number of small-sized sticks. but making high numbers of sticks takes more effort and sticking these smaller sticks is also difficult. Where the bigger size of the sicks cannot take load very well.

the process to make :

  • do marking 5mm apart on paper,
  • do crease cut on first 3 lines to fold it easily and cut it over the fourth line,
  • fold it into the triangle shape and stick it by one side,

follow making the video for better understanding.

by stacking these sections multiple ways different strength and shape can be achieved as per requirement.

Step 3: Making Complete Body:

The denser structure would always better in term of strength. so within the fuselage and wing, I tried to increase the number of load taking members.
after making skeleton it is covered with paper. covering the complete plane with paper is not necessary. the only wing needs to be covered with paper but covering fuselage would improve its strength and stiffness. Even during testing this plane it damaged slightly only where it was not covered.

The complete making process is shown in making the video.

Step 4: Preparing Control Surfaces and Electronics:

Elevator and rudder are made of paper and connected to the plane with paper hinges.

For actuation of control surfaces, Wltoys receiver is used. this receiver has 2 inbuilt servo motors and a brushed ESC that can control a coreless motor. This receiver board is compatible with FlySky receiver. electronics was installed with hot glue.

Here is the process to bind Reciever with flysky tx.

  • Turn on tx with by pressing bind button,
  • connect Rx to the battery,
  • restart Tx,
  • done.

Step 5: Making Flying Wing:

I tried to fly the plane, but control was not very good. So I made a wing. It has better and stiffer structure. Here elevator-aileron mix needs to apply on the wing.

Flying of the video can be found in the attached video.

Testing and flying wing:



• Setting CG is very important in RC plane.
• For conventional plane it is quite easy, 30%(of wing size) from the front end of the wing is a good starting point to accurately set the CG.
• for flying wing CG can be calculated by Online calculators available.
• for the first time is recommended to have a glide test and then increase it gradually over 4-5 flights.