Simple Micro Toothpick Gliders!

Step 5 Advanced Model Tricks

There's a few things you can use to make your models work better and look better, however NONE of these are necessary for the basic glider shown in the intro, so if you want a basic model skip all this.

Still here? Greeaaat! These... Things, are good for accurate replicas, or for just nice looking planes, so if you have a specific plane you want to make, these will probably help. These things include landing gear, cambered(airfoiled) wings, bi-plane struts, plane holders, etc.

Landing gear is fairly simple and not to crucial unless you want a picture-perfect landing. They can be achieved by a simple inverted V glued to the bottom, I would suggest near the front to aid with balance, or a more square shape with a V inside it(like far left, first pic). You could also just add 2 skids to the bottom of your wings, like picture 3.

Cambered wings are said to make a glider go slower and longer, to me they also seem to help with stability and a bit of wing stiffness. To make them, simply take your wings before attaching and press about 1-2mm of the front edge under a ruler or straight edge, and bend the rest of the wing up, like picture 2(In the picture, the wing is upside-down(And crooked..)), this should make the front edge of your wing bent down, I would suggest no more then maybe 35 degrees. When attaching these wings, it may be necessary to aim them slightly higher. If they don't seem to do any good, try adjusting the camber more/less and/or aiming the wing slightly higher.

Bi(or Tri, Quad, Penta, Hexa, Septa, Octa, etc. etc....) plane struts are how you attach wings on top of each other. The most basic are 2 struts on the outside edge, but I suggest a slightly harder(and much stronger) idea I came up with. Take a strip of paper maybe 1-2mm wide, and cut into a little less than an inch length. Fold it down the middle, so they make Vs, then take both ends of the Vs and bend them out so they are level to each other. Make 2 of these. Now, mount them on your bottom wing by flipping one upside-down and gluing the bent ends to the wing, mount the other right in front/behind so the tip of the V is glued down(This may take some holding while it dries). If you're confused at this point, see picture 3. This should result in a nice 3-point platform to mount your top wings on, and it's structurally fairly strong. Most wings I've done at this point with these struts is 3, and more may be difficult due to weight issues.

Plane Holders, are really easy to make, just get a piece of squishy foam(Not stiff, the more fluffy bendy stuff), cut into something about .5"x.5"x1", then put a slice going halfway down the middle, the long way(See pic 4). You can then just put your airplanes in this crack, after gluing the whole thing to a piece of cardboard or the inside of a box(I have 23 mounted in a box for safe travel :-P).

I'd love to hear more original ideas, and if I think they're largely useful I'll post them here with credit to the submitter, but I reserve all the right to choose which I post and no offense if I don't post yours.

Comments

[superhornt]

cambered wings help an airplane or glider fly better because its shape makes more lift than a normal flat wing. in theory, you could have a plane with no camber and a plane with camber with the same weight and design, the plane with cambered wings can have shorter/smaller wings and still fly the same distance because of the extra lift the camber makes. you should try it sometime. also, if you bend down the back(trailing)edge of the wing near the body, you might be able to get even more lift

[Mike McGill]

It's unlikely that camber will make any difference at these sizes. Camber only starts to come into its own for wings of 3 inches or greater chord, and then not with flat plate wings. You need to have built up wings with some thickness, but of course that would be impractical for these little models, which incidentally I think are great.

[FrozenIce]

ok we get it!