How do I build an airplane

I saw some kits online now I need to do this

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Very carefully

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >I saw some kits online now I need to do this
    Design your own and build it out of scrap.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      I'm willing I have multiple CNC machines.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >I'm willing I have multiple CNC machines.
        This dude built a helicopter.
        Making it from scrap sets the challenge level at interesting, but I believe in you.This should be a sticky, I'd happily follow along as you make yourself fly in your DIY scrap plane.
        Maybe even do some videos etc, could end up getting some help with funding if enough anons start to want to see you flying.
        It's the best thread idea I've seen in ages, well done.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          post that webm in which an indian gets ragdolled from a rotor shrapnel inside a diy helicopter

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Wayne?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Imagine having a glorious moment of this not collapsing in mid flight and actually working, then getting shot down for invading air space.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      does this actually take off unlike african planes?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Look at the airfoil profile. Look at the COM.

        Engineers like to say 'anything with enough power can fly'. This doesn't even have enough power. Looks like cargo-cult shit.

        This shit ain't doing shit.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    You join the EAA and you learn how to interact with the serious builders (if you're a larper don't even bother).
    You need a good home shop, to be highly skilled in general, and exhaustive study. If you can afford an aircraft you can afford to visit the EAA show at Oshkosh which should be on your aviation bucket list anyway.

    PrepHole is not the place if you're serious. Perform a cost estimate of the entire build before starting. If you have deep pockets and lots of energy you can do it. However if you want an airplane learn how to buy used then overhaul one instead.

    Don't fall into the "cost delusion" trap and the way to avoid that is measure everything with money. The cool thing about aviation is the serious homebuilder community are seriously skilled. Be fricking hardcore or don't even bother. You will see why. If you have the money and determination the work is not hard, but this is not a poorgay hobby or for any variety of casual. It is very cool and I'd build one but a heart attack means no piloting for me. Bummer since I spend my career fixing aircraft and am an AMT but shit happens. The moral is start as young as you can. Your CNC skills will be quite handy for making your own jigs and fixtures (and inventing custom ones). That's a fine basis to get started. You can do this but you'd best be utterly determined because those who ain't die with a garage full of fuselage.

    https://www.eaa.org/eaa

    If you didn't already have machine shop skills or other demanding metalwork background I'd laugh at you, but you do so DO IT, homosexual.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >a heart attack means no piloting for me
      did you actually fail an FAA medical with an AME or have a medical certificate revoked by the FAA? if not you can still be a sport pilot if you have a drivers license.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >The cool thing about aviation is the serious homebuilder community are seriously skilled. Be fricking hardcore or don't even bother. You will see why. >the work is not hard, but this is not a poorgay hobby or for any variety of casual.

      Very true, I grew up around pilots (many of them pros) and homebuilders and those guys are fiercely protective of that field because even the tiniest bit of indiscipline *will* kill someone and there's enough skepticism about the sanity of DIYing aircraft to begin with from the uninitiated, regulators, etc. without some fricknut making it perfectly justified. Most normies are never involved with anything so deadly serious and unforgiving and don't realize how important a rigidly disciplined adherence to methods and principles is in aviation, even in a hobbyist context.
      Even surgeons have more room to frick around and make shit up as they go along and blow off rules and get away with it both practically and in the sense of legal oversight.
      Hanging out during builds and flying with all those pilots infused me with that kind of "do it right or don't do it" discipline and it's been a huge benefit in my personal and work life...but people who haven't been in that environment often just don't get it and actively fight for being sloppy, not planning and taking unnecessary chances as if that's normal and doing the opposite is a mental disorder.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >Hanging out during builds and flying with all those pilots infused me with that kind of "do it right or don't do it" discipline and it's been a huge benefit in my personal and work life

        A single wrongly installed fastener or incorrect fastener can cause a crash. Doing things properly isn't difficult but requires "will to quality". It's served me well.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Two guys I knew built a Stolp Acroduster 1, both very experienced pilots...the most experienced one had been an AF combat pilot, test pilot, and aerobatics team owner/captain...brilliant guy but always had a wienery streak, he'd punched out of fighter bombers and crashed planes he was test flying and walked away so he didn't fear that stuff like everyone else...he was kind of a larger than life character.
          Anyway, when it came time to plumb the engine he got impatient with a backorder on fuel line and subbed it with something else justxto get things running...other guy found out, lost his shit and made him re-do it right and run the system dry...engine stalled about 25 minutes in, carb was packed with minute rubber particles.
          They go over it to clean it up, run a couple more tanks of fuel, fast forward a few months and the hotshot guy let a guy who was interested in building one or buying that one take it up, engine shits the bed at 400 ft of altitude, guy hesitates a moment too long, stalls and that's that, hes dead and the plane came home in a pickup truck with room to spare.
          It was ruled pilot error since he theoretically could have maintained control, but the cause of the engine quitting was....rubber particles in the carb; there was evidently enough residual junk that it just took longer to all collect and the problem wasnt fixed.
          It was pretty sobering for everyone in that little community of enthusiasts, that guy of all people knew better but let that discipline slip and someone died.
          Perhaps not so coincidentally that guy died in a plane crash many years later, in a Soviet era surplus jet trainer that was being flown by someone else demonstrating it for possible purchase...dude went inverted at low altitude to show its abilities, got mixed up and pulled back on the stick to go up.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Shit fuel line is known for breaking up. (I use fuel injection rated line on all my ground vehicles and mowers for that reason.) Pilots should stick to flying not wrenching unless they were prior maintainers.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              They should at least recognize that the same kind of discipline and rigid adherence to protocols and being methodical and always erring to the side of caution is just as important in building/ maintaining aircraft as it is in piloting them.
              In my experience most pilots get that and don't assume that their flying abilities translate to being smarter than the regs or in this case, building specs. There's exceptions of course but most homebuilders are hyper-focused on getting things as correct as possible, both for safety reasons and because the hobby/sport itself needs to be self policing.
              That's why that incident cast such a pall over the whole group of friends, instructors, airport ground crews, etc...fatalities are always a risk and usually the pilot makes some kind of mistake thats is the direct cause of a total loss accident but that one had a lot of outside help that couldnt be ignored.
              I've known people involved in street racing fatalities and the aftermath was very similar- even when the people who helped make it happen remorseful it's the kind of mistake that makes people re-think who they are, and in this case everyone looked up to this guy as the most experienced, level headed and knowledgeable person they knew, a life long professional pilot and role model worthy of that respect.
              But also human and capable of making really bad decisions, even with all that professional experience and understanding of what was at stake.
              That incident was another major life lesson in why you just methodically follow the rules and protocols no matter what or who says its ok not to; it's cold and impersonal and feelings may get hurt but that's the point, you dont want personality and ego and feelings involved in those decisions.
              Just. Fricking. Do. It. Right. Period.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Iv heard of cheap fuel line becoming brittle and cracking but not breaking down as soon as it touches fuel, At least not when its fresh. Does Av gas have something in it that would attack normal fuel lines?

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              No, but shitty auto store fuel hose(lines are hard, hose is soft)on is made of random bugman plastic waste so I don't even use it in lawnmowers.

              I use fuel injection-rated Gates Barricade etc which is Teflon-lined and designed for EFI pressures and alcohol compatibility on ground vehicles and whatever the pub specifies on aircraft.

              t. former fighter fixer and loicensed mechanic.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Damn sounds fun, military?

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              No but cheap fuel hose is such crap it disintegrates. I refuse to use it even on my riding mowers. Gates Barricade fuel injection hose (hose is soft, line is hard is the easy way to remember the difference) is a reliable replacement for older fuel hose on non-EFI systems. I've used it on my vintage motorbikes and other vehicles for decades.

              For aircraft, obey tech data. The only place to not obey tech data is tasks like battle damage repair where the technician uses it as guidelines but is informed by their skill, training and experience. ABDR class was huge fun as we got to assault SLUFs and a C-130 with pick axes then repair the damage to flyable condition. (No test flights of course, but the fixes have been tested over every air war since the first.)

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >The cool thing about aviation is the serious homebuilder community are seriously skilled. Be fricking hardcore or don't even bother. You will see why. >the work is not hard, but this is not a poorgay hobby or for any variety of casual.

      Very true, I grew up around pilots (many of them pros) and homebuilders and those guys are fiercely protective of that field because even the tiniest bit of indiscipline *will* kill someone and there's enough skepticism about the sanity of DIYing aircraft to begin with from the uninitiated, regulators, etc. without some fricknut making it perfectly justified. Most normies are never involved with anything so deadly serious and unforgiving and don't realize how important a rigidly disciplined adherence to methods and principles is in aviation, even in a hobbyist context.
      Even surgeons have more room to frick around and make shit up as they go along and blow off rules and get away with it both practically and in the sense of legal oversight.
      Hanging out during builds and flying with all those pilots infused me with that kind of "do it right or don't do it" discipline and it's been a huge benefit in my personal and work life...but people who haven't been in that environment often just don't get it and actively fight for being sloppy, not planning and taking unnecessary chances as if that's normal and doing the opposite is a mental disorder.

      Sorry for being ignorant, but shouldn't the first question be whether OP already has his pilot's license--or if he's an unlicensed cowboy in bumfrick, or at least roughly how many hours he has on what type of aircraft? Because we assume that OP wants to not just build something but fly it (what would be the point otherwise, nobody's going to buy an experimental aircraft from a first-time builder without runway cred). And if he's going to fly it, he already should have some idea of what proper flying feels like in a known-working plane to get some idea of how fricked his shit is on those early test flights.
      >inb4 Wright Brothers
      I don't think a lot of those early builder-aviators planned on living very long. But hey Skyking, you do you.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Go full Top Gun

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Hey. Ignoramus. He didn't ask "how do I get my pilot's license," he asked "how do I build an airplane." You CAN read, right? If we took care of all the silly little shit that doesn't matter and is just kind of tangential anyway we'd be here all day.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          You're right, and he also didn't ask about joining associations or sucking off boomers at the VFW, so let's really address the question. OP, to start, you're going to need to open the box that your shiny new airplane came in. Do you have something sharp to cut the tape, a housekey perhaps? After that, you'll need to find the instruction manual, and make sure that you don't misplace the little allen key in the parts baggie, you'll be needing that.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Hey, spastic. Nobody cares. Go to reddit and tell people they're posting wrong, they love homosexualry like that there.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Hey, moron. Tell us more about how to win in life with homosexualry. We ALL care about what (You) have to say.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >shouldn't the first question be whether OP already has his pilot's license
        No, do you think only licensed pilots work in aircraft assemby factories or as Aircraft Maintenance Technicians?
        Also, FYI you do not need a pilot’s license to fly an aircraft under the FAA’s 14 CFR Part 103 Ultra Light Category. There are all manner of kits that meet the technical requirements of that category, many designed specifically around that rule.

        >And if he's going to fly it, he already should have some idea of what proper flying feels like in a known-working plane to get some idea of how fricked his shit is on those early test flights.
        There's nothing preventing someone who intends to build/fly an aircraft that doesn't require a license from taking as many hours of flight instruction as he wants in another aircraft at any time before, during, or after his building his own aircraft. Obviously the more training you have before testing a plane that doesnt require a license, the better...it's illogical to assume that people engaging in the home building of aircraft dont know this, or that someone who would fly a plane that doesnt require a license must be some kind of reckless "cowboy".

        Which is pretty funny since someone with that illogical a thought process is a huge safety risk around aircraft whether building OR flying them, but here you are passing judgement about other peoples activity around aircraft as if you are the safety patrol.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          I started the post by acknowledging my ignorance, and that point was not ironic/rhetorical. Thanks for the reply.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >it's illogical to assume that people engaging in the home building of aircraft dont know this
          It's not illogical when responding to a PrepHole post consisting of the text "How do I build an airplane, I saw some kits online now I need to do this".

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >>inb4 Wright Brothers
        You reminded me of the scrapheap challenge/junkyard wars plane building episode from years ago, making planes out of salvage and suspiciously convenient wood.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        >poust loicence with toime stemp

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >AMT
      Would you recommend someone to become an AMT? What's the right way to do it?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        As a civilian you might make more working in structural repair or avionics. A career where you're immersed working on aircraft and that pays decently would build skills to a professional level and you'll know by experience what that means in aviation.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Thanks, anon. 🙂

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Aviation is great fun as a career and the stuff you learn dovetails perfectly with all sorts of DIY.

            The needful workshop/machine shop is affordable and at that level of play you'll use it for many things because it will be natural to be self-sufficient. The places you tend to live have good flying weather (if they don't get the frick out, life is too short for the horrors of winter).

            Aviation filters losers nicely because it has so few places for them. Nothing quite improves your life like a long career around capable smart skilled SUCCESSFUL people who earned it.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >How do I build an airplane
    it doesn't matter you won't do it.

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Very informative website.
    https://www.kitplanes.com/

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I built the tail and wings for a skypup ultralight, personal life made me put it on hold. Its made out of foam and wood strips and there is a Facebook community of builders that can help you. The hardest parts will be sourcing materials since the wood needs to be spruce/Douglas fur of very high quality or you will die.

    In b4 foam airplane you will die. Over 450 skypups have been built since the 1980s and so far there are only 3 known fatalities.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      does this really weigh under 254 pounds? it looks substantial

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        195 according to wiki...
        It's pretty amazing how light things can be made weight-wise when the structure is engineered to maximize the strength of smaller dimensions and eliminate the need for fasteners and other stuff used to reinforce things that don't need to be lightweight or benefit from being heavy.
        Main tradeoff is that the upper limit of stress handling and the forces created by drag and inertia meet pretty quickly-
        >Never exceed speed: 69 mph (111 km/h, 60 kn)
        That's only 14 mph above the 55 mph cruise speed....it could certainly go faster but would fold up like an umbrella in a windstorm- if not in straight flight, certainly when you tried to recover from a dive or if you tried to turn.
        But keep it slow and out of winds and it will float around like dandelion fluff.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          From what I was told by pilots who have flown skypups, They average around 45 to 55 mph IAS at full throttle in level flight. The only way for them to get to 69mph would be to enter a steep power on dive and even then the never exceed airspeed is still just a number derived from some sort of formula with a safety factor added in.

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            >the never exceed airspeed is still just a number derived from some sort of formula with a safety factor added in.

            Until it isn't. I'm sure if you keep within the power specs it's going to be difficult to get to or past that never exceed limit in level flight, but that's kind of the point, the airframe is designed to stay within a very low performance envelope and thats why it can be built so light. Too steep a dive or flying into a headwind that created enough apparent windspeed to go much past that never exceed speed would shred it, as would overpowering it to make it go faster even if the weight and torque and related vibration and other specs of the motor were the same as the ones it was engineered to handle.
            That wouldn't happen at 70, but speed isn't the only thing that could trigger a catastrophic failure once you are pushing up to or past those limits.
            Just reading about that design, part of its light weight is due to using two axis control and no ailerons, which limits the torsional stresses on the wing structure. Probably hard to create enough stresses with elevator or rudder input in normal flight conditions but airspeed will amplify what stresses can be developed so speed alone may not be what does it in when you push past that limit. Air currents can also create the same forces control surfaces do, even on the roll axis that ailerons would affect but they were left off.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              I think I misspoke, the previous anon mentioned a small margin between the cruise speed and the NE and the point that I wanted to really mention is that the airplane will struggle to get to NE speed. Not that NE is just a theoretical number that can be ignored.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                that's cool and you"re right, Ivwas just trying to point out how its only able to be that light because of the low performance envelope limiting stresses. That combination of shape/structure and construction method is likely maxed out at those speeds but by most accounts is extremely stable, strong and safe. It's all the more impressive since it's a 40 something year old design intended to be built with that eras construction materials and methods (and powerplants) and come in under 200 lbs.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    THINK IT
    DREAM IT
    DO IT

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Getting a license is the harder task, than building the plane.

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    All you know-it-alls and shitposters are not helping. This is PrepHole. OP, do you have access to a hang glider, a bicycle, a small Predator engine from Harbor Freight, and some duct tape? Then buckle up, Maverick, because a pilot is you.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      OP should move to China, where there's no shitlib big government FAA to stomp on his dreams, where a man can truly be free.

      https://piximus.net/others/homemade-plane

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        can't wait to see the liveleak of op's attempt in a china hate thread

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    How do I broach this subject generaly... OP, how tall are you?

    https://www.nairaland.com/2764299/african-man-builds-own-plane

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Hey OP here thanks for the responses y'all I'm enjoying the process of digging. I was thinking about selling a possible open source airplane kit of some sort somewhat like farmbot's model. I saw one dude was trying to do an open source electric plane before that seemed cool. I did just smoke weed though so Im probably just high, but I NEED to get higher if y'all catch my drift

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >I was thinking about selling a possible open source airplane kit of some sort somewhat like farmbot's model.

      Build one that flies first. Yeah, you're high. You will never do/finish it.

  12. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Hey what're the rules on entering other countries with an airplane? Let's say I make an airplane or buy a used cesna what process would I have to go through to say fly to the UK or Europe or wherever from US. Do I have to plan everything in advance or can I literally just start flying over there and call air traffic control when I'm near

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >flying across the atlantic in a homemade plane

      Well to answer your question, it varies. Most countries you do have to announce your flight plan for a private flight. Some might kill you for invading their airspace. Others might not care at all.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Just a thought but online private pilot communities exist and are likely to have owners who have done what you want to do. PrepHole has some pilots but not many.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >Let's say I make an airplane or buy a used cesna what process would I have to go through to say fly to the UK or Europe or wherever from US.
      You'd have to go through drowning in the atlantic after you run out of fuel.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Pilots have gone from the US to the UK - you fuel in Newfoundland, then Greenland, then Iceland, then down to the UK. You have to do it at the right time of year, and take rests inbetween legs of the route.

  13. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Anybody here frick with paramotoring?

  14. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    i just discovered you flyboys are still using leaded fuels.

  15. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    i can't even get an rc plane right
    always ends up being too heavy

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      What sort of engines do rc planes use?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Most use brushless electric motors nowadays.

  16. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    pilot here, with also about 14 years of maintenance experience in helicopters maintenance, with 5 as head of the maintenance crew.

    Do you want to build a plane? easy : lots of "cheap" or expensive options available for kits.
    but if you are set in building one, beside the time you will invest on it, I suggest you first set your eyes on one, spend time around somebody who has it, and either squeeze out of him all the issues he had to fix on his time with the aircraft, or even better: if you can get first-hand maintenance experience on it to know what the problems are, not just because the money you inevitably will end up spending for any silly repair, but because experimental aircraft not always follow a General Aviation strict maintenance schedule and you don't want a bolt to snap in the wrong place and break your neck as result.

    if you are planning on making one from scratch... ehhh, that is beyond me.

    the guy here built himself a plane out of foam and Wing Spars of cheap aluminum all wrapped in fiberglass, so.. it's not impossible but can be really unsafe unless you know what you are doing.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Does he mention anywhere what total plane mass was, sans pilot?

  17. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Best diy thread rn

  18. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I was talking to some guy at my makerspace about this
    he has like 4 planes, he built them all
    apparently as long as you build the plane, you can do whatever you want

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Makerspace?

  19. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    There are online kits for planes?

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      They've been in the back of science magazines for decades.

  20. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I think I saw a $700 Harbor Freight kit. Might give it a try.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Don't do it anon, life is worth living. Talk to someone if you're having these feelings of self harm.

  21. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    https://twitter.com/dharmendrajore/status/1425719324300304388

  22. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I like airplanes

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Me too fren

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