Airfoils, Design and CNC or Laser cut

1/8" Baltic Birch plywood, paper drinking-straw spars:

Downloads:

Ribs with straws for spars... Model

4321 airfoil spreadsheet

4321 PowerPoint (old but fairly accurate instructions, how to draw the airfoil)

Project ideas:

CNC cut parts

Laser cut parts

Hand cut parts using traditional knives, saws, etc.

If you can make one 'rib' can't you make all the ribs that make up a wing?

Another opportunity is to make 'sections' and 'contours' from the model of the aircraft wing. These 'sections' become curves for ribs and stations.

How about the other parts of a plane; fuselage, horizontal stabilizer, vertical stabilizer?

Note from a few years ago: My students made 'stryrofoam' wings, horiz stabilizers, vert stabilizers, held them together with 1/4 inch dowels and flew them from the top of our high-school press box. One pair of students had a glider with a 6' wing span. email: bobkoll@mcneel.com