PLA Toy Plane - Customizable

prusaprinters

<p>A time ago, I got curious about the possibility to print something like a paper plane...</p> <p>Therefore I tried to print one with as less material as possible, but still flying just great!<br/> This is what I found working quite fine so far!</p> <p>It consists of a one layer print regarding main part of its wings, plus a big enough body for good flight properties.</p> <p>You should be able to fly indoor (till now I didn't managed to break something, even if you could push down things accidentally I guess) as well as outdoor. I was flying outside on windy weather as well. Actually it worked better then expected.</p> <h3>Print instructions</h3><h3>Update 28.05.2020</h3> <ul> <li>In appreciation of upcoming <a href="https://www.spacex.com/launches/">CREW DEMO-2</a> from NASA and SpaceX, I added the "X" logo to the plane.<br/> Have a good and save flight Bob Behnken &amp; Doug Hurley!</li> <li>Use about 40% infill for this print</li> <li>.scad file will have the "X" logo enabled by default for now.</li> <li>Note: You might want to disable "Elephant foot compensation" in slicer settings. In my case it makes tail wing connection working pretty bad.</li> </ul> <h3>Update 20.05.2020:</h3> <ul> <li>Created customizable 3D model with <a href="https://www.openscad.org/cheatsheet/index.html">OpenSCAD</a></li> <li>Provide rounded head front as suggested by thingiverse user <a href="https://www.thingiverse.com/SaddamCZ/designs">SaddamCZ</a> for smoother landings ;-) - Thanks for your comment!<br/> Note: use 30 - 40% infill for this model to keep center of gravity below main wing.</li> <li>Reworked tail wing connection to stay in place more reliable.</li> <li>See yellow pictures for new model.</li> </ul> <h3>Notes:</h3> <ul> <li><em>Important:</em><ul> <li>Please be very careful when removing the model from the printer plate.<br/> If symmetry is broken, it will not really fly... The main wings are the critical part here I would say.</li> <li>Take care to use symmetrical infill to keep balance point of the plain at center of the main wings.</li> </ul> </li> <li>I would recommend to print the "...Original.stl" model first.<br/> The other model is kind of a test to get the main wing connection to body more robust. Actually it is still a problem... and flight properties are different with this design.</li> <li>Please see the picture for details about how to connect the tail wing exactly.</li> <li>You can use the small elements at tail wing to trim left/right and up/down steering.</li> <li>Dimension in mm: 180 x 178 x 20 </li> <li>Print time was about 50 minutes.</li> </ul> <h3>What can be improved:</h3> <ul> <li>Main week points are the connections from wings to the body. They break over time. It seams some PLAs are more resistant than others. My "red" flyer is doing a pretty good job so far. Many other color broke much faster over time.</li> <li>Create a modular system of the plane. It would be interesting to support separate head, main wing and tail wing parts, magically hold together...</li> <li>Give the plane a face update. Just for fun it would be nice to put a parametric smiley on the head for example.</li> <li>Guess there are many parametric funny things possible here... ;-)</li> </ul> <p>Have fun and happy printing ^^</p>