Rubber band powered helicopter made from a business card

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By Phillip Torrone
Posted 2006/11/28 @ 10:47 pm
Category General

John writes -

“I discovered this while searching the ‘Net today. Make a rubber band powered helicopter out of a business card? Wow! This sounds simply fantastic!” – Link & translated page.

From the pages of MAKE:

Building an Ornithopter – For millennia, men and women have studied birds, bats, and beetles, observing and experimenting, attempting to determine what humans must do to fly by flapping. MAKE 08 – Page 90. Subscribers–read this article now in your digital edition! & movie.

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15 Responses to Rubber band powered helicopter made from a business card

cmpalmer on November 28th, 2006 at 5:12 pm said:

Many years ago, in the early web/late gopher days, I downloaded plans for a nifty little airplane made out of a magazine subscription card. Does this ring a bell with anyone? Does anyone have a copy?

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blubrick on November 28th, 2006 at 6:05 pm said:

I seem to recall something like was mentioned in this article only a few months ago.

Sure, that was from a business card, but you could easily scale it up to postcard size.

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Dirkus on November 28th, 2006 at 7:07 pm said:

At first I was having a hard time understanding how this was rubber band powered, I just tought it was a demo for how the main rotor and tail rotor worked together using a rubber band to drive the tail rotor… but the rubber motor is actually *IN* the vertical paper tube he’s holding. This guy’s site is incredible, he has an amazing attention to detail, and even has a few semi-flyable models made from stamps. There are a ton of other easier to build and fly rubber powered planes on his site as well. Check out the linkage to his site, you will NOT be disappointed!

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:14 pm said:

A marvel of ingeniosity! I need to make one

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:25 pm said:

By the way, i’ve looked at ornithopter in you tube and there is pretty cool videos, this one is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6370ZISAbvY
It’s an rc one, it’s almost alive…

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:26 pm said:

By the way, i did a search for ornithopter at You Tube and there is pretty cool videos, this one is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6370ZISAbvY
It’s an rc one and it’s almost alive…

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:27 pm said:

By the way, i did a You Tube search for ornithopter and there are pretty cool videos, this one is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6370ZISAbvY
It’s an rc one and it’s almost alive…

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:47 pm said:

By the way, i did a You Tube search for ornithopter and there are pretty cool videos, this one is amazing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6370ZISAbvY
It’s an rc one and it’s almost alive…

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bf5man_ on November 28th, 2006 at 7:48 pm said:

Argh!!! The Post Button is so funky, i’m really sorry for the zillions posts.

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encoders on November 28th, 2006 at 7:55 pm said:

Hi ,
This is a very good idea
keep up the good work.
raj

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ll0ll0ll on November 29th, 2006 at 2:17 am said:

Hi
This is amazing, has someone got a better translation / instruction set?
im struggling with the translated version..

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cmpalmer on November 29th, 2006 at 7:48 am said:

The postcard/magazine card plane I’m referring to was a flying model, not a papercraft model.

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rwo on December 1st, 2006 at 4:22 am said:

Maybe the next issue of Make: should include a few drop out cards with the plane plans pre-printed on them….

That could be fun!

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darkrange977 on March 9th, 2007 at 12:34 pm said:

i was just wondering if you would be kind enfor to post a video of this cool helicopter?

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toni oye on December 12th, 2007 at 11:52 am said:

this project is almost incredibe the maker has a very
high level of intelligence. keep it up!

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