#Building a hang glider full

Test fit everything to ensure your spacing is right and that everything is square. Once that cleaned up, you can start assembly. Cleanup with some paper towels and you'll have shiny aluminum board on both sides! Just spray down the foam, wait about 60 seconds and wipe off the paint with firm pressure. We found that putting on a pair of gloves, getting a rag and putting a spray bottle head on a bottle of 91% isopropyl alcohol make quick work of this next step. But if you are willing to put in a little effort, it's worth it. You could just put it together with all that painting on your foam board. A few pieces of 1 1/2' hurricane strap and maybe some screw eyes to run your control lines and tow connections. Most of the plane is glued together but you'll want piercing 1 1/4' screws from home depot. You could use anything, but this is an airplane. It's also easily patches with packing tape. You can use Monokote if you have an unlimited budget, but the clear film is easy to work with and is very strong. When bonded to foam, it's incredibly strong.ģmm Lamination film will serve as your covering. The Luan plywood is thin, light, and flexible. It's fast, strong, foam safe and easier to work with that Super 77. Loctite Spray adhesive is for laminating layers together. It is actually very similar to the foam, expanding into every crevace and securely bonding all of your parts.ģM 3050 Tape is usually sold as air conditioning ducting tape, but this thin and lightweight tape puts duct tape to shame. This takes a few ounces off and also makes your aircraft look like it's made of all aluminum. Rubbing Alcohol (91%) is will remove that paint and make both sides shiny silver. You want the silver coated stuff that is usually painted on one side. It might be easy to cut, but it's flimsy and a waste. 2 sheet's glued together with Super 77 weight 20% more than a sheet of 1' but increase strength by 40%. It comes in 1/2' and up sizes but you want the 1/2' stuff. At $12.50 per 8' section this is the best value and it's insanely strong.įor the foam, nothing comes close to PolyIsocyanurate board. You can get thin wall, but it's more expensive. You can get 2024 since you don't need to weld anything but it's much more expensive. (Lowes or Home Depotįor the tubing, you want T6061 extruded aluminum tubing. Various nuts, bolts and screws that you can get at your local hardware store.

4x8x1/4' Luan Plywood (Lowes or Home Depot).Loctite Spray Adhesive (Lowes or Home Depot).3/4 T6061-T6 Extruded Aluminum Rod (Online Metals).1' T6061-T6 Extruded Aluminum Tubing (Online Metals).Cost of the power plant can be $500 to $10,000 depending on how fast you want to go.

#Building a hang glider full

(That's about a month if you make do this full time by yourself.) Actual cost of the materials for the plan is about $500 but you might need some tools. We spent 3 months building the first version, but with this instructable, you should have a working plane in less than 160 hours of work. You can probably build everything by yourself, but it's going to take even more time and most of the fun in this is the teamwork. While you can source some of the materials form your local hardware store, others will be nearly impossible to source locally or they will cost you much more. Add a bigger power plant and you can escape ground effect and go as high as your engine will allow you. If you live in the desert or anywhere near water then this is perfect. The advantages of this are that it's very safe, very slow and requires a very small power supply. This means that it's designed to fly a maximum of the wingspan from the ground.

The aircraft described here is actually a Ground Effect Vehicle. You don't have to design it the same way we did, in fact just about anything will technically fly if you get it going fast enough. This instructable walks you through the entire process of building your very own plane. I am an Aerospace engineer and a pilot, and when the RedBull FlugTag came to my town, it was the perfect opportunity to put all my skill to use.