Make more Durable planes using magnets

This is the first scratch-built plane that I’ve made where it is completely my own design.  I used this plane below for inspiration (does anyone know that type it is?)

I didn’t follow that referance photo exactly, though.  For one thing, I wanted some dihedral to keep the plane stable even though the wing was mounted lower.  This proved really nice to have, and the plane feels docile.  I’ve had total beginners fly it without issue. 

I used a wing design similar to the Armin wing by Experimental Airlines, but in order to get the dihedral I glued my spars in a V shape, and then folded the foam around those angled spars.  The wing also tapers towards the tips.  The total wingspan is 43”.

Other then the wing, the other unique thing about this plane is how durable it is.

Rubber bands have been used for a while to make rc planes more forgiving when they crash.  The last plane I built I took that idea further and used rubber bands to hold the motor mount in place, making that resistant to damage as well.

With this plane I decided to try using magnets to hold the wing on instead of rubber bands.  This is nice because I never misplace/break the bands, it looks cleaner, is easier to make work with a bottom-mounted wing, is quicker to disassemble, and in the case of a crash is even more forgiving. 

I also used magnets to attach the wheel housings (which hold wheels I made using the soda can method).  The magnets are strong enough that you can land on rough grass and they won’t detach, at least if the landing is soft. 

Having a wing and wheels that easily break off on impact doesn’t protect the nose at all (apart from shedding some mass, I guess), so I added a lot of plastic reinforcement to the front underneath the foam.  This plane has had some major crashes that would have caused the hobbytree foam board to buckle completely, and it is still completely intact.  I haven’t had to make any repairs so far.

I’m pretty proud of the end result.  I’m using a 1400 kv motor, a 9” prop, and a 3 cell 1800 mah battery right now, and it flies really well.  It’s by no means acrobatic, but I wasn’t going for that anyway, and it is still capable of flying inverted and stuff.