Making an FPV 1.8m Airliner #2 The Wing

In this article, it will be all about the wings. Making the wing formers, and finding the shape.

The first thing to do, is finding the scale wingspan. This should be easy to find, just google it and you will probably find it on wikipedia. In my case, the wingspan was the same as the length of my plane. Most planes will have very close to the same wingspan as length, so if you cant find it, make it the same as the length of your airplane. Find some pictures of the planes wings as well.

Now that you've found you facts, go ahead and open up Sketchup.

No you find the "Top view" outline, and use that as a template for your wing width. draw a line from the center of the airplane (not from the outside edge) half the wingspan long. make it a square and you will have the size cut out for you.

No 

Now you have to shape it using the square as you reference. This is a trial and error process, you wont get it right the first time. Make them look as scale and pretty as you can, we will change the dimensions afterwards.

Using this tool, you can change the wings dimensions in all directions. The reason you do this, is that the real scale sized wing, is designed to be small and have allot less lift than RC wings. This is because they fly 500 km/h (310 miles/h) RC planes need bigger wings as they fly slower.

Choose this tool and simply click on the wing, this will give you and square with small points you can drag to make it larger/smaller.

After this step, you have the wing shaped, and you can now go on to make the wing formers (vertical pieces) This part is really allot easier than you might expect, so "I have faith in you" ;)

To find the perfect airfoil(shape of the wing former), find a plane that has the same tendencies as you want your plane to have. I used the airfoil of my skywalker, as it is really efficient, and gives plenty the speed as well. Now, go take a picture of it and import it to sketchup.

 Then, outline it and make it a Component by right clicking on it, and choosing "make component".

Now comes the hard part. Copy/Paste it to make sure you have keep the original, and tilt it vertical.

The way you do this, is making a little square with one corner on the pivot point, and one moving out, then make sure you highlight both the square and wing former and use this tool to tilt it.

Chose the tool, click on the pivot point, and the then click further down the object. then you can tilt it by dragging you mouse.

Tip: Hold down the SHIFT key to chose multiple objects by pressing on them. 

Now that you have oriented it the right way, you have to place on the wing and resize it.

Place it at the widest point of the wing, that way you will have to make it smaller every time.

Use the same tool as you did resizing the wings. remember to only pull or push on the corners, that will keep the dimensions correct as you are changing the size.

Then you have to choose how far apart you want the wing formers should be, i want mine to be 5 cm apart. Then make a square the 5 cm wide.

This peace is going to be used a a spacer. place it beside the wing former, and copy paste a new wing former to go there, make them all the same size to begin with, and make sure to the back of the wing former lines up with the back of the wing outline.

Then place the next one, then the next one, then the next one a again.

Remember to follow the back line.

Now, we will resize them. (and paint them using the paint bucket tool)

Use the scale tool to make them fit the wing spacing. just push it till the leading edge matches the wing. Do this to all the wing formers till all the spacers have been resized and fit the wing, Then copy the whole wing and there you have it, a finished wing with all the basic shape.

Then again, this will not help you build an airplane, so we have to take all the wing formers and put them on a sheet of paper. 

First you make a flat square the same size as a a4 sheet of paper. then you take one wing former at a time and drag them in the correct order onto the paper.

this is just a giant square, and all the wingformers. Now i made smaller squares the same dimension as an A4 sheet of paper.

Then ad them one of a time

here are your wing formers.

This is a bit of work, but it allot easier than trying to figure it out on paper. And, now you have your very own blueprint to whatever plane you like. Hope this helps and inspires you, Stay tuned for more and thanks for reading :)