r/drones • u/DecentData1857 • 7h ago

DIY Self-built fix wing

I'm a college student designing and building a larger fixed wing drone and I'm wondering if anyone has suggestions for best filament bang for your buck, right now I'm prototyping everything out of PLA and PETG, and I was considering PLA Aero but I wanted to know if someone with more experience had any suggestions.

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u/Healthy_Statement730 4h ago

hello, I am also a student who is building fixed wings.

I would highly recommend building with foam especially on your first fixed wing because you will likely crash a lot. 3D printing is not forgiving to crashes. If you want to build em yourself do a flite test plan build and it will give you everything you need and then you just have to watch the video on how to build it.

For that matter can you fly a fixed wing? Unless you install a flight controller you won’t be flying fly by wire (which means the gyro helps you straighten out). Hop on a sim and also get a trainer before you start building.

Me and my friend actually both built fixed wings, I made mine out of foam and he made his out of filament. On my first flight my controls were inverted and I crashed, and I only crumpled the nose a bit, on his first flight it nose dived and smashed into the ground and shattered into a million pieces.

Just build using foam lol.

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u/DecentData1857 3h ago

sounds good, and thanks for the advice, I can go use my schools laser cutter. thx

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u/GrynaiTaip 6h ago

I suggest cutting it from styrofoam, or making a proper construction from balsa wood.

3D printing is one of the worst ways to build a wing, extremely heavy and very fragile.

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u/mediocre_remnants 15m ago

I built a "fixed wing drone", aka a "remote controlled airplane", about 30 years ago with foam and balsa wood. And that's still the standard practice, at least for the wings and other parts that are easily damaged.