Guess what! We're taking on the official record for the largest rubber band plane (in the world!)
Here's more info.
For the next video on the Project Air main channel, I'm going to be attempting to break the official Guinness World Record for the biggest rubber band powered airplane.
Images of the Project Air aircraft in this article are renders in a current early stage of the design process. The final aircraft is likely to change.
The previous record is currently held by Joshua Finn, longterm friend of the Project Air channel.
Infact, Joshua helped me in my pre-project research for my last go at this project back in 2022. Here is my previous effort with a 10ft wingspan rubber band powered plane.
Joshua was then inspired by that build to have a go at this record himself, being a legendary name in the balsa space of the model airplane hobby.
The plane he built was called the "Wandering Eagle", a huge 18ft 2" wingspan monster made almost entirely of balsa wood, with a lightweight iron-on covering.
Watch the flight video here:
Here are the two build parts of his journey to the maiden flight of this aircraft.
Part 1
Part 2
Incredibly, the plane flew for far longer than 2 minutes, smashing my short 16 second flight out the park.
Previous to Josh, another friend of the channel Kavin from Think Flight also was inspired by my first giant rubber band plane to take on the challenge and build one for himself.
He ended up with a beautiful 16ft model based on one of those very basic windup balsa models made by companies such as Guillows.
For the past few years I've been thinking about the idea of building a new plane to break this record, but until now, the task of increasing the wingspan of my previous rubber band powered aircraft to the 18ft+ of Joshua's (nearly 6m) felt impossible... but I think we now just about have what it takes to build something pretty impressive indeed!
Our model will have a winspan of 8m (26ft) and will be the largest aircraft (or project) I've done so far on the channel. It will have a balsa frame supported by carbon reinforced spars, covered with a lightweight clear covering film. It's going to be HUGE.
If you're interested in Josh's design, it's actually based on a kit called the Dawn Patrol you can buy from his shop J&H Aerospace. Check it out if you're into these balsa models!
This is just a small announcement article to let you know of my plans, but more will be posted in the coming weeks on Project Air socials as the giant aircraft takes shape.
If you want to make a rubber band plane of your own, check out our products here.
That's all for now!
- James