Working 100% Lego glider

[Davidz90]

After release of the 42174 yacht set, I wondered if these large sails could be used as wings. Turns out - absolutely yes!

With a lightweight frame made out of the long technic axles from botanicals sets, I built this:

The structure is minimal to save weight, but still fairly heavy by airplane standards. Nevertheless, initial tests were promising:

and after some tweaks, I got it to glide decently:

Unfortunately the conditions were quite windy, I'm gonna do more tests indoors soon. Nevertheless, Lego can fly! (about as good as paper airplane and better than space shuttle XD)

[2GodBDGlory]

That's a pretty cool idea! The "Fly Better" branding on the sail pieces fits well here!

[Jurss]

Nice. 

Play with some added weight at back or front, and You will get better results

[SNIPE]

Very nice,

I actually had the idea of using these vinyl pieces to make a small fast helicopter with a buwizz motor so I'm glad someone had the initiative to make an aircraft using the same vinyl pieces.

[Davidz90]

2 hours ago, 2GodBDGlory said:

That's a pretty cool idea! The "Fly Better" branding on the sail pieces fits well here!

Thanks! Yes, the branding is on point.

43 minutes ago, Jurss said:

Nice. 

Play with some added weight at back or front, and You will get better results

It is already balanced properly; I need to do some testing indoor, or just in more calm air, to really fine-tune it. Right now it flies just fine but wind gusts cause it to stall, so possibly it's a little tail heavy.

29 minutes ago, SNIPE said:

Very nice,

I actually had the idea of using these vinyl pieces to make a small fast helicopter with a buwizz motor so I'm glad someone had the initiative to make an aircraft using the same vinyl pieces.

Thanks! Helicopter is a cool idea; buwizz has better power/weight ratio than regular Lego motors, but is that enough to take off?

[piterx]

that's pretty cool :) maybe add a couple of strings connected to a central axle to reduce the bending!

 

[Davidz90]

1 hour ago, piterx said:

that's pretty cool :) maybe add a couple of strings connected to a central axle to reduce the bending!

 

Yes, that would definitely help. 

[Davidz90]

Next round of testing. I found out that the sails are actually heavier than the supporting structure, so the said structure can be made a little beefier without affecting total mass too much.

Whole thing is, as expected, rather heavy which results in high glide speed. This, in turn, produces large forces that the structure needs to handle. Most of the current erratic behaviour can be attributed to wings nad/or tail twisting one way or another. Also, no vertical stabilizer. I'll need some sail part from a different set.

 

 

[Jurss]

Maybe for vertical stabiliser could be enough part 61800, yes it is small, so who knows.

Some sail or something with supporting structure also wont be lite. Maybe make wings more like V shaped?

[Davidz90]

3 hours ago, Jurss said:

Maybe for vertical stabiliser could be enough part 61800, yes it is small, so who knows.

Some sail or something with supporting structure also wont be lite. Maybe make wings more like V shaped?

That part would be too small and too heavy. Yes, normally making wings v-shaped (wing sweep) is enough for stability, but only when the wings keep their shape. A little twist of one of the wingtips is enough to turn the airplane.

I'll need something from Lego pirates, or the recent Endurance/Black Pearl etc.

Another option is to increase wing sweep and then turn the wingtips up, so they act as vertical stabilizers.

Finally, if I manage to get two more big sails, then something like Dunne D8 is an option:

Biplanes are far more rigid than monoplanes.

[Shiva]

Tail or V-tail from the sails of Travel Boat Adventure 42664.?

[Davidz90]

8 hours ago, Shiva said:

Tail or V-tail from the sails of Travel Boat Adventure 42664.?

Great find! Thanks!

[Davidz90]

I got this set:

First, I'll try to make a small glider with it. If that fails, the wings will serve as horizontal stabilizer, and the tail as vertical one in the big glider.

[HydroWorld Outlook]

On 4/21/2026 at 2:25 AM, Davidz90 said:

Nevertheless, Lego can fly! (about as good as paper airplane and better than space shuttle XD)

Well, technically, by physical terms, gliding is technically not flying, as true flying requires continuous thrust—not currently possible with genuine LEGO at the moment, unfortunately. However, we get the idea—you pick up the glider, you throw it, and it sails through the air a very short distance while descending rapidly and then lands softly. Good work—I haven't seen many other models like this!

On 4/22/2026 at 12:15 PM, Davidz90 said:

Next round of testing. I found out that the sails are actually heavier than the supporting structure, so the said structure can be made a little beefier without affecting total mass too much.

Whole thing is, as expected, rather heavy which results in high glide speed. This, in turn, produces large forces that the structure needs to handle. Most of the current erratic behaviour can be attributed to wings nad/or tail twisting one way or another. Also, no vertical stabilizer. I'll need some sail part from a different set.

You can try the smaller vinyl sail from the Ninjago Land Bounty set—not sure how well those will perform though since they are jagged on their trailing edges. The Land Bounty set only has one small sail, but you'll need to get at least two for your application as an empennage tailplane. Plus, you'll have to flip one of these upside down since the sail is only printed on one side.

On 4/24/2026 at 5:38 PM, Shiva said:

Tail or V-tail from the sails of Travel Boat Adventure 42664.?

Yes, please try these sails for the empennage tailplane instead, if possible—they might perform better aerodynamically than the sails I recommended above.

Edited May 1 by HydroWorld Outlook

[Davidz90]

1 hour ago, HydroWorld Outlook said:

Well, technically, by physical terms, gliding is technically not flying, as true flying requires continuous thrust

Not really, gliding is flying, just unpowered. At least that's what all dictionaries I checked say. That's why distinction "powered flight" as opposed to unpowered, exists.

The best glide I got from current model was about 10:1, e.g. traveling 20 meters from 2 meter height. Not too terrible, actually. I'm testing multiple options right now, updates will follow.

[HydroWorld Outlook]

16 hours ago, Davidz90 said:

Not really, gliding is flying, just unpowered. At least that's what all dictionaries I checked say. That's why distinction "powered flight" as opposed to unpowered, exists.

True. Growing up, I was taught that true flight requires continuous thrust from a purely physical standpoint, but yes, you could informally call gliding a form of unpowered flight.

16 hours ago, Davidz90 said:

The best glide I got from current model was about 10:1, e.g. traveling 20 meters from 2 meter height. Not too terrible, actually. I'm testing multiple options right now, updates will follow.

Looking forward to it!

[Davidz90]

Before building a better tail, I tried to make a typical paper plane-like structure. With low aspect ratio wings, the whole thing was much more rigid and stability problems were mostly resolved. However, such a wing is not ideal for gliding, and the already mediocre performance became just terrible.

Back to the slender wings. I will try a Wright Flyer style canard configuration to squeeze a bit more lift out of this design.

[TheLegoRoleplayer]

Apologies for necro-posting, but this is pretty cool. I should try this myself sometime. 

[Davidz90]

On 6/24/2026 at 7:48 PM, TheLegoRoleplayer said:

Apologies for necro-posting, but this is pretty cool. I should try this myself sometime. 

Thanks! Not really necro-posting, I plan to do some more experiments soon :)