Balsa Wood Airplane

This is an easy balsa wood plane that will take you only about an hour to make. It makes a great decorative item or wall art. This project is a great beginner project for someone just getting into balsa or wood models.

What You Need:

-Small Balsa Sticks
-Glue
-Wax Paper
-Scissors
-Paper
-Pencil
-Thin Wire
-Small Prop

First step is to design the plane you want. Make sure to design the three parts separate and to scale. Divide it up into fuselage, wing, and elevator. This will make the assembly much easier.

The second step is cutting. Take the design you have made and tape wax paper on top. Next take the balsa wood lay it on the design and mark your cuts. Try to get as accurate as possible.

This is where you need a lot of patience. Since the balsa wood is so light and glue is heavy (depends on type of glue you are using) the balsa pieces may want to move when you move the glue. Just take the your time and get it right. I unfortunately didn't have great glue for the project so this step took a long time. Make sure and glue the three parts separate. 

Now it is time to glue the three parts together.

Now you need to take a small piece of wire and strip the protective coating off. Once you have done this wrap it around the spot where you want the prop to be and leave some left sticking out. Slide the prop onto the remaining wire and bend it so it doesn't fall off. Now take your glue and glue the spot where the wire is wrapped around the frame so the wire doesn't move. If you do this all right your prop should spin easily. Mine will spin extremely fast and make noise.

Now you are all done. You can hang it up on the wall or set it on a desk as a decoration.