electric airplane launcher

Launch mini paper airplanes from your desk, without ever winding up your arm. Perfect for office shenanigans or other indoor fun!
By using common electrical components we can make our own electric paper airplane launcher!
You might even discover you have many of the parts required already laying around, especially if you have any old toys with small DC motors.

Check out the launcher in action:

^{Pretty neat, right?}

Enough talk, let's launch some airplanes!

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Step 1: Tools + materials

tools wire strippers soldering iron rotary tool (or hacksaw) hot glue gun hobby knife

materials 2x DC motors (3V) 2x rubber grommets SPST switch (or any other switch) copper wire scrap plastic small hobby box 2x AAA batteries (or other 3V power)

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Comments

[xinistrom]

manually launching a airplane is flys alot better though

[Angus MacGyver]

In reality this is more consistent than manually throwing P-A's. When using your arm the trajectory is more akin to an arc, prior to release. By using a linear launcher the effects on pitch, yaw and roll can be reduced, as long as the wheels are spining at the same rate.

I'm going to try to expand the concept to allow it to throw flying wing designs (which don't have a spine)

F

[ilpug]

Was just thinking how you could make a simple torsion version of this too, as opposed to an electric one.

[jmcconnell5]

Here's mine: the body is an old cap gun, the guide rails (or rail) is a pen tube with a slot on the top, the wheels are lego ones, the switch is a big microswitch (if you look closely it is where the trigger was) and the motors are normal 3v dc ones. hope you like it :D

[mikeasaurus]

Wow, that's amazing! I'm really liking the pistol grip.
Enjoy the digital patch and 3-Month Pro Membership!

[jmcconnell5]

Thanks! :D

[reptedjess]

Because throwing the plane yourself takes to much effort. Hell, you had to even fold the paper. Get ahold of me when we have a machine that does that for us. Then I'll try this out.

[kc5qnk]

Play nice...

One use for it in the classroom setting is to provide a uniform launching force so as to be able to effectively compare different models. I have seen commercially-made launchers for this purpose, but I am going to have to build this one...very nice, and MUCH less expensive!

[vishalapr]

I just added glide rails and it works quite a bit better now!

[mikeasaurus]

nice job, thanks for sharing!

You've been patched. Enjoy the 3-month Pro Membership!

[vishalapr]

Thanks for the patch and membership!

[vishalapr]

Here is mine! I didn't need any guide rails...but maybe will add some soon...
And my motors were round motors...my batteries were AA and the switch was some weird switch I got from an old printer...so yeah mine is bigger...

[ilpug]

great. gotta make this for some of the larger gliders i have made. i have two old tablesaw motoers.... i wonder if i could make a giant one to launch a giant plane?

[DieCastoms]

I would like to make or see someone else make a pistol-grip version of this with a "launch button" for the trigger. It would run only when the button is held.

Very simple and fun looking instructable. I may try it if I get a chance.

[masynmachien]

I like these launchers. This is a great Ible on it.

My daughter and all of her classmates did a pistol-grip version a couple of weeks ago, based on my related Super-fast-paper-plane-launcher Ible. They made it to fit balsa gliders they also built.

[Flying_MashedPotatoes]

sweet idea, seems to work well.

[sommmen]

we so gotta make a turet out of this!

[dreadengineer]

There's an alternative that works well for motors that just have a normal shaft, with no gear mounted: use a Lego wheel, the kind that fits onto a plastic Lego shaft. Drill a hole down the center of the Lego shaft, and push the Lego shaft onto your motor's shaft. You can now mount a Lego wheel on the shaft of your motor.

[ScottyAlmanjoy]

I feel like it would be better if you could bend the guardrails upward at the exit end, since the airplanes in the video seemed to be launched at a downward trajectory.

[TheHawkeye]

Very cool. Reminds me of matchbox car launchers. It could use a clip and a trigger though.

[depotdevoid]

Awesome, nice one! I wonder how well this would scale up . . .

[shveet]

can we get a video to see the approximate distance you can launch? i understand it varies from plane to plane but just to get a rough idea before i create one.

[mikeasaurus]

It varies from plane to plane, the power of your motors, the amount of juice in the batteries and the assembly of the launcher itself. Under the best-case scenario I was able to launch about 10-15'.

[OrigamiAirEnforcer]

Can this accommodate planes with angles of incidence of 0 degrees (wings parallel to the bottom of the fuselage)?

[mikeasaurus]

It depends of where your rubber grommets are located, in this design there needs to be some clearance below the plane in order for the grommets to 'bite'. But, you could easily modify the assembly to meet other plane designs, it may be as easy as turning the launcher upside down and using the grommets to bite onto the tail for launch.

[george97]

super

[CaseyCase]

Excellent.

[splazem]

Awesome!

[nnygamer]

Cool, quick redo it so it can plug into your USB port for power then enter it in the contest!

[tilmen]

ultra cool.

One of the 'patentable' diys I've seen.

[SHIFT!]

Awesome job, love your graphics btw!

[ynze]

Absolutely non-critical for life on Earth. And great fun!