I was talking with some folks at my local flying feild about joining and whatnot. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a 3d plane, fuel powered(I do electric, no clue what it was) but it appeared to be made of foam. The amazing thing was, it wasn't really that big, maybe a 45-50" wingspan. It struck me as odd to see such a small foam plane powered by gas, or were my eyes mistaking me?

Nope, quite a few guys build them up fast using foam panels to make planes. Just like they do with electrics, you can do with glow too. Now using Coroplast panels is even better as the stuff is almost indestructible and fuel proof too.

I don't think he built it, are there any commercially available models?

Many years ago, a friend of my dad had a .10 powered foam trainer. I don't remember much about it other than it being foam and fuel soaked. Foam planes were not very common back then. I'll bet it was more than 30 years ago!

Was it one of these here?
http://www.spadtothebone.org/

I have several Spads and also the SPA3D too. There are a number of people here and there who make up batches of the QHOR types of planes for local combat events too.

Quite a few guys take the foam insulation board that you can get from Home Depot or Lowes and make planes with it.
If you are experimenting, you don't even have to fuel proof it. Just fly it and decide what changes you want and then make a improved version. When you get the design done, you can decide whether you want to fuel proof it more or not.
There were a couple used ones out at our LHS waiting to be sold to someone when I was there last.

Originally Posted by KitScratcher

Many years ago, a friend of my dad had a .10 powered foam trainer. I don't remember much about it other than it being foam and fuel soaked. Foam planes were not very common back then. I'll bet it was more than 30 years ago!

30 years ago, the foam planes were all glow powered, as there was not the level of electric propulsion you find today. One of my first rc planes was the Cox Cessna Centurian, a cool looking model that came with a pre-installed Cox .049 engine. Unfortunately, there was also an absence of miniturized servos, batteries and receivers, so this little foam plane loaded with 2 standard servos, standard RX and 600mAH battery was a touch overweight for the wing. I crashed it a lot (also before Buddy Box became popular) and repaired it a lot, which made it heavier, and on and on... The second one fared a little better, but came to the same end.

SureFlite used to make glow powered Foamies too. Now they are all electric, but one could convert them easily enough to glow power too.
I flew one of the Sureflite Chipmunk planes many years ago. If you go glow with one of these, don't bother trying to fuel proof it too much, just the engine compartment. The paint simply adds too much weight.
Here is my Sureflite Cessna with a old Fox .36RC glow engine on it.

If you want a very very good and easy flying foam airplane and electric do buy a Multiplex Twin Star, I have 2 one on classic can's and the second with brushless engines. Both come absolutely complete even Lipo battery included. The foam is called Elastopor a much stronger material than standard foam.

Thanks for the help guys. It wasn't one of those "SPAD" designs, the wings were airfoiled and not square. It looked like an extra 300 kind of.

Most SPADs have airfoiled wings and many have rounded wing-tips..... just depends on your preference.

Sureflite used to make some small .10 to .15 powered foamie planes way back then.
They converted the old designs over to electric nowadays. But the molds are still the same though.
www.sureflite.com/sureflite/products.php

did I forget to mention that it was a profile plane? sorry, that was sorta the weirdest part...