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How to Make a Balsa Airplane

Balsa wood is the ideal material to make toy glider airplanes out of as it is lightweight, pliable and easy to cut. There are a large number of templates for balsa gliders available online, all for different aerodynamical designs and of varying degrees of difficulty, but even a basic version will provide a lot of entertainment. This relatively simple design should take less than an hour to manufacture and construct.

Things You'll Need

Paper
Pen or pencil
Scissors
Balsa wood
Hobby knife
Fine-grade sandpaper
Modeling clay

Instructions

- 1
  Create a design for the fuselage, wings and stabilizer on a piece of paper. The design from the references can be used or adapted for this project.
- 2
  Cut out the paper templates for the design using a pair of scissors.
- 3
  Place each of the templates in turn on the balsa wood sheet and trace around them with a pencil. Make sure the grain of the wood goes lengthwise along all pieces as this will ensure a sturdy plane.
- 4
  Cut the sections of balsa wood out using the hobby knife and smooth all the edges using the fine-grade sandpaper.
- 5
  Remove a small section from the middle and rear of the fuselage using the hobby knife so the wing and tail plane can slide into the main body. Make sure these gaps fit the other parts tightly as glue should not be added to the glider.
- 6
  Slide the wing and stabilizer into the main body of the fuselage and make sure they are all in the center of the glider to ensure even weight distribution.
- 7
  Attach some modeling clay to the nose of the plane. This will give the glider extra flight distance and improved trajectory.

Aviation