How To Build a Simple Flying Wing Chuck Glider

Did you know you can make a glider from just a handful of materials? Here's how to build one without a tail!

A few months ago, I wrote a brief tutorial for how to build a chuck glider from a barbeque skewer. On the theme of last week's article on the aerodynamics of flying wings, I think it's time we combined theory with practical hands-on airplane building. So, with that, here's what you'll need to build your own custom flying wing glider.

Supplies:

1x sheet of thin balsa wood (no particular thickness, just find some scraps)

1x barbeque skewer

2x nail, screw or another cylindrical object to be used as a weight

1x roll of electrical tape (or any other tape really)

Tools:

Hot glue gun

Glue sticks

Craft Knife (Here's an awesome deluxe knife kit in the Flite Test Store)

Build

Step 1: Measure and cut templates

This first step involves drawing your wing template. This airplane design has a simply swept wing so all you'll need is a rectangle with each end angled. This small sized glider has a wingspan of 6.5 inches. You can use these dimensions or customize them to fit your own materials.

Trace around the template onto your balsa wood sheet. Repeat this to mark the second wing.

Step 2: Cut Wings

Make sure you use a sharp knife when cutting out both of the wings. Check that both wings are identical when held together.

When laid next to each other, the two wings should look like a mirror image.

Step 3: Sand into shape

To make the airplane cut through the air, use some sandpaper to shape the leading edges of the wings. This will also help to create a slight airfoil.

Step 4: Cut 'fuselage' and glue wings

At this point, you can decide how long you want your fuselage to be. Simply cut a length of barbecue skewer to size for this. As a general rule of thumb, make it about the same length as one of your wings.

Next, take your glue gun and lay down a bead of hot glue on the edge of one wing. Next, stick it to the center skewer. Repeat for the second wing.

Step 5: Add elevons

For a flying wing to work properly, as you'll know from this Aerodynamics Simplified article, you're going to need to add some reflex to your wings. To do this, cut out two fairly small ailerons from scrap material. Remember to angle them up sightly so that, in flight, the airplane's nose will be raised slightly to the oncoming airflow.

Step 6: Balance

As we all know, finding the correct center of gravity is extremely important for all airplanes. On a flying wing, it's especially important. Use a small screw or nail to fix to the nose. Just tape it in place at first as you may need to move it forward or backward. For reference, the CG of your wing should be around 20% back from the tip of the sweep.

Step 7: Make a stabilizer

Your plane will need a vertical stabilizer to fly straight. You can decide where to put this, but I like to place a simple offcut triangle on the rear of the fuselage. You could position two on each wingtip instead.

This type of chuck glider is a fantastically simple and effective way of testing new concepts. You can hack up some balsa, foam and barbeque skewers to glue them together in so many different ways. You can go from nothing to a flying model in just minutes. Let us see your creations by posting about them on the Flite Test Forum or the Official Flite Test Facebook Group.