Improved Rubber Band Airplane

A fully 3D printed rubberband plane.

Print parts and plane body and assemble. No tools needed, but threading a piece of string or wire through the body and pulling the rubber band through makes it all a lot easier.

Build Instructions

1. take axis (hook thing) and put on the propeller followed by the bearing / spacers.
2. Hook the rubberband on the axis (you might have to stretch the rubberband to do this depending on size)
   
   
    
3. With a piece of wire or string, carefully pull the rubberband through the plane body and secure it with the clip (small piece of plastic)
   
    
4. carefully heat the center of the propeller with a cigarette lighter and twist the propeller into shape as shown in the pictures, hold still and gently blow till it cools.
   
   
    
5. Gently form the wing to have a slight upwards curve
   

I used 4 ordinary rubber bands joined together like in the picture, but I also had good success with a single thicker band.

Landing gear (Optional)

1. Gently heat the landing gear legs and bend into shape, hold till hardened.
2. take a piece of filament (approximately 4-5cm) and straighten it out by gently heating it and rolling it on a flat surface, then melt the tip of the straightened piece of filament and press it flat, put on wheels and landing gear legs, close the filament rod by melting in other end.
3. Use hot glue to secure the landing gear to the plane as shown in the pictures, and a tiny dab of hot glue to keep the landing gear wheels in place (try not to join the rod and wheel with the glue - only prevent the leg from slipping on the rod).
   

Tips for better flight:

• Dihedral! Gently curve the wings upwards 3-5degrees.
• If plane stalls consistently try to add weight to the front. If it nose dives consistently, try adding weight to the tail or throwing it with a higher attack. For adjusting center of gravity I used a small dab of hot glue.
• Check if wings are straight and even
• Make sure there is no stringing on wings as it can cause drag and unwanted yaw/roll
• If you have problems with the plane veering off to the right or left due to torque of the propeller you can try less prop pitch. If that does not work for you, try gently bending the wing tips to counter the torque.
• If you don't get enough thrust for proper flight, try a steeper attack angle on the propeller, there is a sweet spot where it flies good, too steep an angle and the plane has a tendency to just veer off course, and too little not enough thrust produced for proper flight.
• You can carefully bend the wing surfaces to fine tune the flight

Cost is ~12grams of filament.

I will upload a video of flight when I can.

Printed in PLA but I suspect that PETG is better, especially for the propeller.

If you have problem with bad seams when printing the plane body, try using zero retraction and lower print speed… Or give it a little glue for good measure.