Seaplane

While this 3D printed seaplane may not fly, it certainly does float!

Designed with buoyancy in mind, the floats help keep the plane above the surface while also providing stability.

The attached STL files will print the smaller of the two seaplanes, but all of the files can be scaled up to a maximum 170% when printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2.

All files were printed in PLA with two shells at 0.2mm layer height, with raft and support material.

The left and right float were printed at 100% infill on the small plane, and 50% infill on the large plane (this particular setting can be changed to adjust the buoyancy and how the plane sits in the water).

To reduce the weight, and increase the buoyancy of the plane, the body and wings were printed at 5% infill, while the rest of the parts were printed at 10% infill.

In order to ensure the the pieces stay in place, the seaplane was assembled with a bit of hot glue.