PLA Toy Plane - Customizable

thingiverse

Well, it's a 3D printed paper plane! A while back, I got curious about the possibility of printing something like a paper plane... Therefore I tried to print one with as little material as possible, but still flying really great! This is what I found working quite fine so far! It consists of a single layer print regarding the main part of its wings, plus a big enough body for good flight properties. You should be able to fly indoors (till now I didn't manage to break anything, even if you could push down things accidentally, I guess) as well as outdoors. I was flying outside on windy weather too. Actually it worked better than expected. ### Update 28.05.2020 + In appreciation of upcoming CREW DEMO-2 from NASA and SpaceX, I added the "X" logo to the plane. Have a good and safe flight Bob Behnken & Doug Hurley! + Use about 40% infill for this print +.scad file will have the "X" logo enabled by default for now. + Note: You might want to disable "Elephant foot compensation" in slicer settings. In my case, it makes tail wing connection working pretty bad. ### Update 20.05.2020: + Created customizable 3D model with OpenSCAD + Provide rounded head front as suggested by thingiverse user SaddamCZ for smoother landings - Thanks for your comment! Note: use 30-40% infill for this model to keep center of gravity below main wing. + Reworked tail wing connection to stay in place more reliable. + See yellow pictures for new model. ### Notes: + Important: + Please be very careful when removing the model from the printer plate. If symmetry is broken, it will not really fly... The main wings are the critical part here I would say. + Take care to use symmetrical infill to keep balance point of the plane at center of the main wings. + I would recommend to print the "...Original.stl" model first. The other model is kind of a test to get the main wing connection to body more robust. Actually, it's still a problem... and flight properties are different with this design. + Please see the picture for details about how to connect the tail wing exactly. + You can use the small elements at tail wing to trim left/right and up/down steering. + Dimension in mm: 180 x 178 x 20 + Print time was about 45 minutes. ### What can be improved: + Main weak points are the connections from wings to the body. They break over time. It seems some PLAs are more resistant than others. My "red" flyer is doing a pretty good job so far. Many other colors broke much faster over time. Have fun and happy printing!