Hi I was wondering what wood giant scale aircraft biulders use to make their planes. It can be balsa can it? Also do they have like monster servos on those things and what radio systems do they use? not sure wat topic to put this under took a wild guess

Yes they use balsa and lite ply just like 40 size trainers, but the wood used is carefully slected and placed for structural integrity and is usually thicker than in sport planes.

They use somewhat larger servos with more torque (100+ ounces) than a standard Futaba for example, but not a lot bigger in physical size. They often use more than one servo on each control surface. Some of the larger aerobatic birds use four servos for the elevator, two for the rudder, two for each aileron....

But the radio system is just a better version of the standard 4 channel. Usually a 7 to 10 channel computer radio with a lot of "free" (unassigned) mixes so that all those servos can be plugged into separate channels and then "mixed" together.

They will also often use two receivers (on the same frequency), one will control one half of the plane, the second the other half; and they will often have an additional battery and switch set up to lessen the possibility of crashes due to failures.

Hope that helps some.
Dennis-

What can make them look as if they are made from other materials, is that sometimes, they will finish them with a very thin layer of fiberglass which is then painted to a high gloss finish. When done well, they can really look spectacular!

I saw a post in another forum with some huge airplanes. Planes standing on end that were 8+ ft tall. Including one huge Lufthansa passenger jet that looked big enough to carry a couple people. How much do these guys spend on these planes with materials, radio, engines, etc?

I guess that I will have to add that most wings of the larger wings of like 33% or 40% planes are usually made out of foam cut to the right everything for the wing an d stuff.......hope this helps.......!!

True, many giant scale planes use foam for wings, and some use foam for major portions of the fuselage too (not the aerobatic stuff).

But for that matter, most Pattern type airplanes use foam wings too, so the materials are still fairly standard.
Dennis-

I found out they used foam because I have someone at my field that I asked why you didn't see the ribs coming out of the wing....so I asked the guy and he said that the stuff that they do, they use the foam, since that is "a little stonger than the balsa for the aerobatics they do"....and they make the covering look so good where you don't see any ribs or inperfections...because if they use the foam....they usually sheet the wing and that will give you the nice flat smooth finish that most people see when they see a giant scale plane......

The foam itself is not that strong. It is the balsa sheeting, and often carbon fiber reinforcement, that give it its strength and stiffness. A wing can be quite flexilble and still be strong (watch the wing of the 737 next time you ride one through turbulence). Wiglly wings are NOT good when you're trying to do precision aerobatics, so stiffness is important.

Well, that was what I was saying.........I really didnt' think that the actual foam was THAT strong, but something other than that was making it strong......

I HAVE seen the wings of a big plane (I used to fly everywhere when my stepmom worked for the airlines and we only had to pay like $30/person) move even when they are taxiing on the ground.....but they realy move when they are up in the air and hit that turbulence...

to broadly answer the question about cost: the club i used to belong to had several big birds. a memorable one was a 40% (?) carden edge that ran to about $7K. another guy had a jet that i heard was about $12K. when people say "How much did...", my reply is this: it's like golf. you can buy walmart clubs and play at cheapy muni courses or you can spend $5k+ on clubs and join the local CC using $100 balls. basically the cost is whatever you want. there's plenty of cheap things to buy or plenty of expensive things....