Business Card Glider

Guarantee that potential clients will take not just one, but three (!), business cards when they are attached to this fun glider toy. (Makes a great give-away at trade shows.) Glides nicely when launched by hand, but it also has a little hook on the nose for high-speed rubber band launching. Designed for 51 x 89mm business cards.

This is a complete redesign of my previous glider that is sturdier, easier to print, and flies much better. However, it does take a little assembly as it prints in two halves and is “riveted” together using short lengths of filament.

Printing
I printed this in PLA with 0.2mm layers. To get the right amount of weigh in the nose, use 3 perimeters and 20% infill. Both halves will print in the orientation provided on the bed of a Prusa Mini+.

Assembly
After printing both halves of the glider, cut seven 2mm lengths of 1.75mm dia. filament to act as rivets. In one half, press all seven rivets in the corresponding holes. Be careful with the upper hole on the tail section. Then, starting at the nose, start pressing the other half of the glider onto the ends of the rivets until both sides are pressed firmly together. Alternately, you can just hold the two sides in alignment with just two rivets and then use a few drops of superglue along the fuselage to glue the halves together.

Next, take one business card and use a stylus or ball point pen to emboss a crease line down the center. Fold the card so that it has about a 90 deg. bend. Shove the folded edge into the tail section. Finally, insert two business cards into the slots in the ends of the wing stubs.

Flying
For hand launching, the wings and tail stay in place pretty well with just the friction fit. For rubber band launching, though, you'll want to use some clear tape on the underside to tape the wings and tail cards to the fuselage. To get a level flight, you may need to trim the wings by bending the trailing edge of the wing cards up or down slightly. This is needed in particular for rubber band launching.