What probably makes this foam so popular is its price and availability. By removing the paper on one side, it can bend around curves to create complex shapes.
#Foam board airfoil design series
I use this foam and have recommended it in both my Maker Hangar series ( ) and YouTube videos ( ). Most of the airplanes I own are made of Readi-Board. The paper gives the thin foam board a lot of rigidity and allows the builder to easily decorate the airplane without worrying about melting the foam. Also known as Readi-Board, this is a polystyrene foam sheet with paper backing manufactured by R.L. Photo by Max Weakley.Īrguably the most popular foam for park flyers is Dollar Tree () foam board. The Cessna 152, constructed a few years back, was entirely built from BluCor foam, except for the tail, which was made from Readi-Board. It was also sold in a folded, perforated form that was as thin as hobby sheet foam. It was also useful to keep around when I needed a thicker structural piece of material or I had to embed a servo into a part of my airplane.
#Foam board airfoil design full
I sanded airfoils, shaped full fuselages, and even built a scale Cessna 152 from this material. I built several airplanes from sheets of BlueCor when it was available. Dow (dow.com) also manufactures UtilityFit in thicknesses of 1, 11/2, and 3 inches. It is sold in 4 x 8-foot sheets that are 2 inches thick. It was often used in building full-scale, moldless, composite, experimental airplanes because of its superior strength-to-weight ratio.Ī similar foam by Dow, called UtilityFit, is available from Lowe’s (). It was great for wire-cutting wings and carving out fuselages. It was waterproof and less stiff than Depron, but easy to cut and sand. Also known as small-cell Styrofoam, this insulation foam was manufactured by Dow and was an extruded polystyrene foam, like Depron. For some, that justifies the costs.Īnother foam I experimented with in my early days was BlueCor. A box of the stuff can set you back a couple hundred dollars! Although this is expensive, any airplane you build out of Depron will have a long life and great performance characteristics. Depron is usually several dollars per sheet. Sheets come in large sizes with tolerance thicknesses. In most cases, the foam forms nicely with a bit of heat, and it’s waterproof because there are no coverings. Its stiffness means you rarely need spars or stiffeners. Lucas expects it to last for many flying days. The airplane is rock-solid and incredibly lightweight. This RCPowers F-18 () is made from 6 mm white Depron foam. There’s even a variety of Depron that is specifically manufactured for RC use called Depron Aero. Depron is also marketed for arts projects and RC modeling. It cuts well with a sharp X-Acto knife and it’s easy to tape, sand, and glue.ĭepron is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene that is sold as wall insulation and flooring substrate. This turned out to be fortunate because Depron is easy to work with. Let’s get started!īelieve it or not, the foam I used to build my first airplane was Depron (). I also want to share my current go-to foam for building my new airplanes. From top to bottom: BlueCor, Readi-Board, Depron, and Fli-Power XPS.Īlthough I could go into all of the science about how these foams are manufactured and formulated, in this article I want to discuss my experiences with the foams that I’ve used and, hopefully, give you some ideas for your projects. Here is a close-up of the foams discussed in the text. One of the questions I am asked the most from my videos and articles is, “What foam do you use for your builds?” As seen in the Summer 2018 issue of Park Pilot.