Plastic Rat: 3D printed, rubber band powered airplane
As kid I use to make Hangar rats, a popular rubber band power plane and fly it across badminton courts.
One thing I remember was the tedious process of cutting balsa wood into ribs and strips, then carefully covering the frame with tissue film to form the wings.
So I took a challenge, can I 3D print the whole plane so there is no repetitive effort required for cutting, pasting, waiting to dry, breaking the plane and making it again.
19.4g
April 2026 - Present
01 Flight video
Plastic rat V4 - Flight video
Used carbon fibre rod as fuselage to reduce the weight in V4 along with other modifications listed below.
Printed the wing cover with 0.08mm layer height ( minimum with 0.4mm nozzle in bambu lab). Experimented with flow rate and pattern fill to maker stronger layer at 0.08mm layer height.
Reduced the wing frame elements thickness to 65-70% since I figured tension from wing cover is keeping the wing structurally stable
02 PARTS
03 VERSION/ WEIGHT PROGRESSION
Version progression of Plastic rat
Below is a table and some images to show how the model was refined over the period of time
Grey boxes are marked for weight which I think I cannot reduce further
Changes in wing design over the period of time