History is full of engineers making (or attempting to make) things out of the wrong stuff, from massive wooden aircraft to boats made of ice and sawdust. [PeterSripol] is attempting to make an ultralight aircraft out of a rather wrong material: cardboard. In the previous installment of the project, a pair of wings was fabricated. In this installment, the wings find their home on an equally mostly cardboard fuselage, complete with rudder and elevator.
The fuselage construction amounts to little more than a cardboard box in the shape of an RC airplane. Doublers provide additional strength in critical areas, and fillets provide a modicum of additional strength around seams. To support the weight of the pilot, a piece of corrugated cardboard is corrugated again, with an additional piece making up the floor. With the addition of a couple of side windows for comfort and visibility, the fuselage is completed, but additional components need to be added.
The most difficult challenge in making the fuselage is, in part, unrelated to the building material of choice. To allow the aircraft to be transported to the show after it’s built, the wings are detachable. Detachable wings would be no big deal on a normally constructed ultralight, and permanently affixed wings would be no big deal on a cardboard aircraft, but the combination of the two poses structural integrity challenges. As such, some plywood and aluminum are used to provide the strength needed.
The horizontal and vertical stabilizer construction is fairly simple, with cardboard folded over ribs creating a rather strong surface. At the ends of each are mounted the elevator and rudder, with fiberglass tape making up the hinge. Finally, the tail is mounted to the airframe using a couple of wood screws and some rope.
Despite the questionable choice in materials, the aircraft appears to be reasonably strong, and we love seeing things used in ways they were never intended. Make sure to stay tuned for more coverage, and while you wait, read our write-up on the previous installment of the project!
The video doesn’t show it flying….
Not watched it …. but defo seems to be a slight lack of engine and propeller from what i can see.
It is a multi-part project. This is part 2. It is not finished yet.
The video posting schedule for update instalments is every few weeks or so.
Again?
I’ll quote some comment from the previous installment:
“More YouTube algorithm food…
You HAVE to stop highlighting this trash.”
One of the most useful cardboard plane applications I’ve seen lately are the SYPAQ ones sent to Ukraine from Australia.
Who cares if its really useful when it is fun, or being done for the challenge?!?!
Not my favourite thing to watch either as a rule, but overcoming limited materials and a rulebook you must adhere to so it remains an ultralight is an interesting challenge. Or for a different example of because you can fun/challenge I really enjoyed recently look at “Building a Bimetallic Tea Monitoring Mechanism” video from Chronova Engineering – it is an absolutely daft solution, but wonderfully executed.
Also Peter has done some real testing of the construction methods and wing loading etc that could actually be useful to you and any of us too! Seeing how and when the layers of card actually fail in those test beams in the real world I expect will be worth having in the back of your head, no hugely shocking results (at least to me) but it does give a good benchmark for how good cardboard really can be.
I don’t like the videos, but Peter is a legit maker with a positive impact on the people he inspires. Unlike these type of comments.
Also if you are interested in cardboard drones for Ukraine or at least their utility, which is worth thinking about consider how the methods used here may actually be useful for larger scale but very cheap disposable drones. This is a rather huge aircraft to be all cardboard, and at least is meant to hold a person, which is a heck of a alot of mass, and construction wise rather quick and easy if you can access a laser cutter to turn waste into wing spar etc…
Nah, paper planes are cool, and this guy typically risks his life actually flying the ultralights he builds. Typical youtube format, sure, but it’s not slop.
That looks a lot like a Schweizer 2-33 glider…
Kinda. The 2-33 is the two seat trainer and the 1-26 is the one seater. I have a bunch of hours in both and they are really, really fun aircraft. Super light wing loading and on light lift days sometimes then only gliders that stay up when everyone else has to land. That’s satisfying.
They are made out of tube steel though. Wings are aluminum skinned and a lot of the other stuff is fabric.
As an aside if this highlighted project is indeed a glider and not a powered aircraft cardboard is about the worst thing I could think of other than toilet tissue. Gliders fly in thermals and stuff and the occasional shower happens sometimes. Might as well be wet tissue at that point.
I’m worried about his back when landing if he doesn’t have wheels under. Obviously a crash would be even worse.