My project - RC plane

I have liked flying things for a very long time, and now, I decided to try making one myself.

I, with the help of AI, come up with a plan. The plane was called the HISUI TRAINER 1000 as it was a flying (or will be flying) prototype, 'training' me for maybe a larger, more powerful version. The 1000 was inserted in the name to show that it was the first one, small iterations would be increased in 500s and major ones would be 1000 and would also reset the 500 part. It would be a single engined (or should I say 'motored'), high-wing propeller aircraft with a reasonably large battery and mainly constructed of 8mm foam, hot glue, and fiberglass reinforced tape.

The aircraft would have a 1m wingspan and a 200mm chord (leading edge of the wing to trailing edge of the wing). The plane would weigh roughly 650 ~ 800g in total with the battery.

I had the parts, I had the electronics, I had everything I needed. I started off by sketching out the parts I needed to cut out for the fuselage (the body). Once that was done, I started cutting out the fuselage. The whole process of cutting out all the parts took 2 days. After I cut one single part my right hand got so tired. Even then, I remembered my goal and kept going. I finally finished the bottom, top, and sides of the fuselage. I hot glued them together and put a few bits of fiberglass-reinforced tape on it to make it strong. That was another day. I realised the making was actually quite slow. I needed to up my game. So I did. I sped up the drawing and cutting.

Now that I had the fuselage ready, I figured out how all the electronics fit together. I got the elevator servo, rudder servo, and motor ready. I'd figure out the airleon servo much later. I got the propeller and I encountered a problem. the propeller didn't fit! I still wanted to see how fast it could go and just placed the propeller on and let friction do the job. Big mistake. It spun around 5 times and slashed my tendon area. luckily, it didn't go too deep and my thumb was still operable but all good things would have a bad thing and blood spilled. I got a large band-aid out and covered the wound. I learnt that propeller blades are scary and I shouldn't place my fingers (or thumb) near them. I had a break from this project (which I regret) and after 2 days of break, I got to work again. By now, I occupied 4 tables and my family members began to be annoyed. I didn't give notice and worked on the vertical stabilizer. This part of the aircraft is crucial. If the aircraft didn't have this part, it will undergo uncontrolled spin and dive, as shown in JAL 123 and American Airlines flight 587.

It was just another flat foam sheet but I made a rudder panel and connected the servo onto it. Finally a control surface. Since I was working on the tail section, I thought it would be a good idea to work on the horizontal stabilizer and elevator. I cut out the horizontal stabilizer (which is another flat sheet) and cut out an elevator panel. I mounted a servo on a good distance from the elevator and attatched the horizontal stabilizer and elevator to the plane.

I now wanted to put the electronics into the plane but I thought it would be better if Istarted on the wing so I design wing ribs on tinkerCAD (like I do if I don't have a part) and printed it off version 1. It was just the shape of the airfoil and a thin bar through the middle in a diagonal. It was very, very weak and didn't have a hole for the 2 carbon-fibre rods so that was a fail. It was back to the drawing board. Version 2 was version 1 but with 2 extra bars, making it more rigid and added holes for the carbon-fibre rods. I was confident this would be the last iteration but I was wrong. The carbon-fibre rods didn't fit in the holes! 'Great, another problem. That's the thing I need.' I thought. I designed a tester. You see, when a 3D printer prints something, the filament (basically the ink of the printer) shrinks by a different factor, differentiated by speed, humidity, filament type, etc. I predicted that it shrunk by quite a lot. The tester consisted of 3 holes. 4.4mm,4.5mm, and 4.6mm holes (diameter). I printed it and tried putting the rods in the different holes. It went in every single one.I made version 3 have 4.4mm holes instead 4.3mm holes.I printed 8 and I had good ribs. Strong, had a bit of elasticity for wiggle room, had carbon-fibre rods that fit. Perfect. That was the 4th day.

On day 5, I decided to put the electronics in for a weight test. I couldn't because there was no opening. to fix this, I cut 3 'doors'. Roof, right and left. I could fit the electronics in. There was still hours left of the day so I decided to cut out the bottom wing panel. It came out perfectly.

On day 6, I spent the whole day trying to work out how to bend a foam board around the curve. On day 7, I came up with a fraction of the solution. 3D print the leading edges, which have the tightest curve. On day 8, I designed and printed the landing gear. This was printed in glow-in-the-dark filament because if it got dark, I could clearly see them. I printed 2 main gear and one small tail gear. I placed them in a 'taildragger' position. This means that the small wheel, named the tail wheel, is at the tail, as the name suggests, and the 2 main gear is just in front of the center of mass. They rolled very nicely. The main gear got 2 foam board of its own to add stability (gear that are further apart usually mean better stability and traction) but I saw that the foam was sagging under the load. i was worried that the wings will also bend so much it snaps but i remembered the carbon-fibre rods and ribs I worked hard on and hoped for the best. I designed and printed crossbars, which are just rods designed to be put at an angle for strength (triangles are the strongest shape) and also printed rods (which stop the bending motion directly). Now they didn't bend. On day 9, I made airleons. they were directly connected to their servos, and they worked spectacularly. The servos had a high max and minimum rotation angle, which lets it deflect air at a much steeper angle. I also made wing supports. The wing was made to be detatchable so i needed a way to secure it with rubber bands. There are 4 wing supports. They are just right-angle-triangular-prisms with a cylinder poking out of it so I can put the rubber band on. It held the wing perfectly in place and even when I lifted only the wingtips, the wing didn't break or fall off (which is a relief because if the wing did break, I would've had a big problem). The last day - day 10. I have worked hard (sometimes even without sleeping) and this is the final day until I have to go back to England for school. I quickly designed wing skins - they are just 3D printed panels which fir on the curve, meaning I didn't have to bend any foam. They were a gold color, but the gold filament I have is a matte, dull color which doesn't shine at all. By coincidence, the setting of the print (which I had edited) made an effect which made light scatter, which made it shiny. So, shiny wings, cool gradient purple leading edge, glow-in-the-dark wheels, and non-shiny wheel supports. This, I thought, was a very cool color combo. Sadly, you can never beat time and I didn't have time to finish before going back to school. I have a finished wing, finished fuselage, and the only thing I needed to do was get a correct propeller, but I didn't get one before school. This was very dissapointing, but I will continue on this epic project. I am determined to finish this and see this fly. (After a lot of tweaking, and getting flight regulations, of course)

Thank you for reading this blog. There will be another update of this project in part 2. Stay tuned, and good bye.