Design

• Use the graphite pencil to draw out your pieces on a sheet of ¼-inch-thick balsa wood that is at least 1-square-foot. Draw the wingspan first. This is a solid piece that will create both wings when slid into the fuselage. Your wingspan should be at least 3-inches long by 10-inches wide. Taper the edge of the wings for stability. Next trace the fuselage, which will become the body of the aircraft. This piece will be a full foot long and at least 2-inches wide. The body should taper to only 1 inch at the end; begin this taper at the middle of the fuselage. The final design will be the tail fin. Draw this as a single triangle with either sharp or tapered corners. The tail fin dimensions for this plane should be 3-inches wide and 2-inches long.
  
  

Removal and Connections

• Use a hobby saw or jigsaw to cut the pieces from the balsa wood. Do not use scissors or other straight-edge tools as they will likely cause the wood to splinter and crack, destroying your design. Avoid bending the wood or attempting to force any pieces off the sheet, as connected pieces of the fragile balsa wood can splinter with little pressure. Once you have all of the pieces cut from the sheet, the next step is to carve the notches to connect the parts. The most difficult cut is the wingspan hole. Carve a straight line at least 1 inch from the head of the craft that is centered in the middle of the fuselage. This line cut should be 3-inches long to accommodate the length of the wingspan. The width should only be that of your saw, allowing the wings to fit snugly. Make a ½-inch cut in the center of the tail of the aircraft and a matching cut in the center of the tip of the tailfin triangle.
  
  

Construction and Advice

• Now you can put it all together. Mark the wingspan with a small pencil line in the center so that your wings are even. Slide your wingspan into the middle fuselage cut and align the center with the fuselage itself. To add the tail fin, you simply need to slide the notches that you cut in the previous step together. This will reduce the length of the tail fin to 2 inches, which is just right for stability. You can adjust any of the dimensions of the pieces as you desire to match historical aircraft or create more realistic models. A good rule of thumb is to always design your fuselage one-fifth larger than your wingspan so that it will not bend or break on use.