This week, Danny and I cut out the components for a metal origami plane. The project didn’t come out perfectly, but it still looks cool.

 

We started off by testing the “origami” design with a smaller object: a bowl. However, the test had to be abandoned because the metal was too warped to plasma cut. Enough of the program had run to show that the origami cuts could work, so we advanced to the next stage.

 

The plane itself was designed in separate components for the fuselage, nose, propeller, wing, tail, and rudder. Each component was made to bend into the desired shape (for example, the fuselage section could be bent into a box) and then connected to the others by slots or by folding tabs. Unfortunately, bending the metal components wasn’t exact, resulting in mismatched part placement or unusable tabs.

The plane still fits together fairly well and all but the main wing can be assembled.

 

After Thursday’s class, we’ll sand down all of the parts and possibly use the breaks to refine the project. Hopefully, it’ll be ready to fly by Friday!

 

 

 

 

EDIT: After sanding