Radio-controlled Aircraft - Airframe Materials

Airframe Materials

Several materials are commonly used for construction of the airframe of model radio controlled aircraft.

The earliest model radio controlled aircraft were constructed of wood covered with paper. Later, plastic film such as Monokote came to be widely used as a covering material. Wood has relatively low cost, high specific Young's modulus (stiffness per unit weight), good workability and strength, and can be assembled with adhesives of various types. Light-weight strong varieties such as balsa wood are preferred; basswood, pine and spruce are also used.

Carbon fiber, in rod or strip form, supplements wood in more recent models to reinforce the structure, and replaces it entirely in some cases (such as high performance turbine engine powered models and helicopters). The disadvantage of using carbon fiber is its high cost.

Expanded polystyrene and extruded polystyrene foam (Styrofoam) came to be used more recently for the construction of the entire airframe. Depron (the type of foam used for meat trays) blends rigidity with flexibility, allowing aircraft to absorb the stress of flying. Expanded polypropylene (EPP) is an extremely resilient variety of foam, often used in basic trainers, which take considerable abuse from beginners.

Twinwall extruded polypropylene sheet has been used from the mid nineties. Commonly known as Correx, it is mentioned in the sections above. Currently the Mugi group based in West Yorkshire still promote and use this material in 2mm thickness sheet form. Very tough and lightweight it has only two disadvantages. Firstly it needs particular two-part contact glues. Secondly the material is difficult to paint due to low surface adhesion. Self-adhesive coloured tapes were the answer. Components are often laminated, taking advantage of differing flute directions for strength and forming. Models tend to exceed 900mm wingspan with carbon fibre tubing used for local reinforcement. The thickness among modellors is the use of 2mm to 4 mm thickness. The models made out of this materials are commonly known among modellers as "Spad."