Foam RC Model Airplanes
By John Ehlers
I am a real fan of your Foam Fusion for the construction of my RC model airplanes. It is absolutely the strongest glue I have found. Additionally, it dries clear and pliable for a great looking model. It sets up slowly enough so that I can pin all the pieces together for a great fit and no muss. I generally build the models from scratch using depron foam. I have attached photos of four of my more recent builds. All were built with Foam Fusion and I sprayed the foam surfaces to be painted with your Shelby 277 spray glue to avoid having the paint etch into the foam. By the way, your Shelby 277 is better than Dupont 77 because the Dupont product also attacks the depron.
The first airplane is an absolutely bullet-proof design of my own. It doesn’t look like much, but it flies wonderfully. The flying surfaces are all made from 9 mm depron. Its wing span is 39.5 inches (the length of a sheet of depron) and has a 10 inch chord, of which the ailerons are 2 inches wide. The fuselage is a simple lath that can be purchased at any lumber yard. The parts of a model that take the most abuse are the motor mount and the landing gear. The trick in making it bullet proof is that both the motor and the landing gear are attached to a 1×4 block of wood epoxied to the lath in front. This airplane will do the full range of aerobatic maneuvers, including a “knife edge” (flying with the wings vertical). The plates on the end of the wing are intended to protect the ends of the wing in the case of hard landings, but they may aid in flight stability. I use a Tower 2409-12 motor and a three cell LiPo battery for power. Another trick to making the airplane bullet-proof is the under side of the wing is covered with clear packing tape. This makes the foam unbelievably strong.
The second plane is loosely patterned after a MIG-29 with a prop mounted amid ships. This plane does unbelievable maneuvers, like the “cobra”. It is able to turn on a dime and give change due to the vectored thrust tabs on the elevons. I built this one from 6 mm depron, but I will use 9 mm depron for my next build.
The third “plane” is a model of a Sidewinder missile. The motor and prop are buried in the forward fins. This one sure looks weird flying, but its main claim to fame is that it does a very stable hover. Free plans can be downloaded from the internet after finding the location using Google.