Compressed Air Powered Plane

Some of you will probably remember those Air Hogs planes that you'd pump up to high pressure, spin the propeller and away they flew into the air. Well I used to own one and lost it on the very first flight when it flew behind some trees, never to be seen again. So a few years later (quite a few!), I have decided to build my own compressed air powered plane!

First of all, I had to build an engine that could run using compressed air. Using certain 3D printing techniques and ABS acetone smoothing, I was able to produce this:

The engine was a success, but it was far from being useful for an aircraft power system. Many suggested to add a pressure regulator and have a high pressure bottle. However, all the pressure regulators I could find would just restrict the air flow, so the pressure in the engine head valve before starting the engine would be equal to the tank pressure... and I wasn't comfortable pressurising this 3D printed valve to high pressures whilst holding it close to my face when launching a plane. So I went to work on trying to improve the efficiency of the engine, as well as increasing the volume of the bottle (pressure chamber) for longer run times. Then I built the following aircraft:

So that's how I built my own 'Air Hogs' air powered plane using a 3D printer, foam board and some basic RC equipment! Obviously the flight characteristics can't be compared to an electric power plane, but it was a super fun project to carry out! Thanks for taking the time to view what I have attempted and I hope this can spark some interest for others to experiment with!