Verrückt – 10 foot flying wing, build thread

The Verrückt – a 10-foot wide flying wing. Surely that’s crazy, right? Probably, but I’ve got nothing to lose by trying (other than time and money.) So … here we go.

Planned setup:

120 gram 1000kV Dynam brushless motor (Dynam Gee Bee and Waco)
Hobby King HK-50A ESC
Separate 40V / 5A BEC
1-2 2800 mAh 4-cell LiPos
(2x) 58 gram Power Up AS1515MG metal gear servos

10 feet is too big to transport or even store; the wings will have to come off. As per usual, I have absolutely no idea how that’s gonna work, but I thought the place where the wings meet up with the fuselage was important enough to warrant some actual wood, rather than foam. The thinnest I could find in a usable size was some 5mm birch plywood from Lowe’s, so that’s what I’m using.

I printed out my airfoil, traced it on the ply, and cut the blanks out with a saw.

I screwed the four finished ribs together and used a friend’s belt sander to even up the edges.

I used some 1/4″ dowel as registration pins to keep everything aligned and started removing material with my drill and saw.

I cut out the center section of the plane, and then the first wing skin. It took me a couple of tries to get the measurements right on the wing. Fortunately, Dollar Tree foamboard is cheap.

My first attempt. Turns out, I’d really screwed up the measurements somehow. But, eventually…

… I got my first wing section cut out and the dimensions all seem to line up. Yay!

Gluing the starboard wing ribs in.

Patterns for some of the remaining ribs.Some internal lights, because of course.

I think I’ve found a test pilot.

Building a motor mount.

I need a bunch of weight up front, as is typical for flying wings, so it might as well be batteries, right?

2700mAh 4-cells are the biggest in my arsenal and I ain’t buying a bunch of giant 5500’s just for this project. Instead, I plan to run it on twin 2700’s.

Gotta make some weird, two-headed battery cables.