I am working on a Wright Flyer made out of Dollar tree foam. It started with me building a wright flyer out of bass wood and depron and after watching a bunch of Flitetest.com videos I wondered if I could build one out of Dollar tree foam. I will post some photos as I go.

The first one on the hood of the truck my son said looked like a Chinese Box Kite however, it flew (by pure accident) shockingly well. From there I just kept carving and adding to get the look right.

Here are some more picts of my Dollar tree Wright Flyer. This is the latest version that I flew today. They have all flown very well, no crashes yet. Thank God and knock on wood. As you can see they are set up with a single motor and elevons. I have tried to keep it very simple, cheap and airworthy.

Here is a great website for estimating CG on a Canard. http://adamone.rchomepage.com/cg_canard.htm

It does take a remarkable amount of weight to balance a Wright Flyer. I have been using the leading edge of the wing as my CG. this site puts the CG about halfway between the Canard and Wing.

I am working on some simple plans to post and will do so in a few days.

Very cool.
Can't wait for the plans.
Thanks for the efforts.

This is the plane that started the Dollar tree Wright Flyer idea.

(THIS IS NOT THE DOLLAR TREE FOAM WRIGHT FLYER!!)

I wondered if you could build a simple basswood and depron Wright Flyer. Well, after many hours of research and building I did come up with a pretty poor rendition of the W.F. but I still thought I had put too much work into it to just "take it out and give it a toss" which is pretty much what I do with most of the planes I build. This W.F. looked like it was either going to fly or come home in a 5 gallon bucket so... I started to build the ultra cheap DT foam W.F. to test all my flight theories before I finally sacrifice this plane.

I've been watching this.

In your last post, that plane has diagonal supports between the upper and lower wing. The one you put together only has vertical supports. I don't really see any lateral support on yours at all. IE. it seems that if you pushed the upper wing left and the lower right (or vice versa), the thing would just fold the frame over.

Am I missing something here?

I am working on some simple plans and some actual build picts for the DT WF. The bottom wing is in a slot and hot glued. The top wing is just hot glued on the top. The outer wing 1/8th dowel supports, while i am sure do offer some stability, are jjust for looks.

Thanks for the question.

Intriguing, What is your weight, power plant and battery?

RuralFPV The diagonal appears to be in the motor mount. It spans about 2.5cm and runs from wing to wing. Thats all I see.

As promised here are my very rudimentary plans for this DT foam WF.

There are only 9 pieces of foam to cut out. I highly recommend you take your time and lay the fuselage sides out on some poster board first so you can trace the other side and speed up the process if you build more than one. The other pieces are fairly simple to measure out and cut. I also recommend that you add either some foam strips or balsa strips to the outside(s) of the fuselage to add strength. It will fly great without it but, will endure a few bounces better with it.

I will post some build photos in a few short days. If you have any questions or see any problems feel free to ask or better yet........ fix the poblems and post your results, that would be more interesting.

I also threw in an orville wright photo already mirrored, ready to cut out, mount to the foam and install.

The Motor is a (300) blue wonder type motor I bought at Headsuprc.com. If you have never tried this company I highly reccomend them.

Battery is a 2 cell 500mah. I am sure a 3 cell would be a lot funner.

All my WF planes have weighed around 9oz. wo battery.

I will post better photos of the build but, the motor is simply mounted to a 1-1/2" thin ply mount that is glued to a piece of foam that is hot glued between the wings at the back. I also add 2 foam supports at the back of the mount. the photos will make it all clear.

Just wonder do you have plans in a tile format

Originally Posted by mensite

Just wonder do you have plans in a tile format

Sorry I do not have tiled plans. The only slightly complicated part of the plan is laying out the fuselage. The rest is straight forward. If you need any clarification let me know.

Here are some build pics of the DT WR. It is a pretty straight forward build and if you have ever built a DT foam plane you should have no problem. This Wright Flyer does use elevon mixing for controlls so the set up should be the same as a typical pusher prop delta wing.

This is not a finished perfect design so make your changes, polish it up and I hope you have great luck with it.

Feel free to ask any questions.

Here is an idea to beef up the canard wing connection on the Foamie Wright Flyer. It involves using toothpicks that are glued and driven down, at least 3/4", through the wing into the fuselage. Snip off the excess wood, wipe off the glue and lightly sand when dry. Give it a try.

Here is a flight video of the DT WF. It was shot and uploaded in the evening with an iphone. Not the greatest video but I will try another one in a week or so.

Wright Flyer Foamie (2 min 19 sec)