For those who want to fly the friendly skies but don't want to leave home, building a wooden model airplane can be just the ticket! Hone your woodworking skills and have something fun to look at when it's done. Adhere to the following steps to learn how to construct a wooden model flying machine all your own.
Carve or purchase a 12-by-1 inch block of soft wood. Balsa is the softest, but it's so soft that care must be taken to prevent unwanted gouges and scratches. Pine holds up a bit better. Clamp the block so it's secure. Then a styling suggestion would be to slope or curve one corner to make the appearance of a cockpit. Cut a 1-inch section off the back end to use as a riser for your tail wings.
Determine the wing size. You might want to draw out a few sketches to scale to see what size will look the best. Let's say a 10-inch by 3-inch span for our purposes. Fashion the wings out of a wood sheet.
Glue the riser. Attach the riser you cut off the end of the fuselage to the top of the opposite end of the cockpit.
Create your landing gear. Cut the Popsicle sticks to the desired length and glue a dowel to the end of each. Let them dry, then glue them to each side of the fuselage right under where your wings will be attached. Probably to the forward side of the wings will be best.
Cut your tail wing to size to something like 1 1/2 by 4 inches. Center the tail wing over the 1-inch riser and glue it securely. Let it dry before proceeding.
Get your wings. It's time to mount the wing on top of the fuselage just back of the cockpit area. You might want to line it up and mark the placement with pencil lines first. Glue down and hold with a clamp until dry. Once you're sure all the parts are secure, you can proceed.
Finish your aircraft. Now you can add finishing details such as carve out a cockpit window . Paint or stain the plane or add decals.
