bkhart

My Feedback: (6)

I wanted to experiment with cardboard as a building material. The Liddlestik Plan was enlarged 10% for a .40 sized plane. The fuselage was mostly made of cardboard while the wing is foam with posterboard over it. Painting with Rustolem saved the cost of covering. Power comes from a K&B .40. The finished weight came out at 4 lbs 5oz. So far I have one flight on the plane and it flew great. This whole plane was built for probably less that the cost of one roll of covering. My goal was to build a plane that was cheap to build and durable and so far this plane has exceeded my expectations after flying it.

aerowoof

cardboard planes have been around for over 30 years,let us know how long it last.carboard has a tendency to absorb moisture.even though you painted the outside,the inside is probably untreated.in dry locations should not be a problem but after repeated landings i think the gear area gets a bit spongy.good luck

bkhart

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks, those are good points. I sealed the fuel tank area and down the sides of the fuselage from the firewall just past the leadiing edge of the wings with epoxy before painting. Hopefully this will make it last longer. All of the cardboard was also treated with thinned Polyurethane before I cut the parts out. I used plywood on the bottom of the fuse from the firewall to just past the leading edge former. I figured for what this plane cost to build it would be worth trying.

Villa

Hi bkhart......Just in case you are not aware of it, the planes built from COROPLAST are very similar to those built from cardboard. This material can be described as plastic cardboard. You can read up on it in the SPAD forum below. COROPLAST requires no treatment to resist moisture, oil, or R/C fuel.

Cfelton

Hi,
Just saw your cardboard model and wanted to congratulate you on a fine effort. I have been building CL models for over 30 years using corrugated cardbard as the primary building material. I started out building with balsa and tissue, but switched over to cardboard once I learned how. The photo shows my 60" wingspan French WW2 Caudron "Cyclone" fighter. I have a website which may give you some more tip which you might like to see at http://home.earthlink.net/~charlesfelton Keep up the good work!
Chuck Felton

bkhart

My Feedback: (6)

Hi Chuck, Your website and RCM's Cardboard Stik plan from the 70's was my inspiration for trying cardboard construction. I'm sure this won't be the last plane I build out of carboard. Thanks, Bill.