Remember those huge foam airplanes sold in the malls?

[ponyfool]

My 10 year old kid is really getting into playing with electric motors and using them to power his Legos and such. I remember around 25-30 years ago (and more recently too) some guy in a kiosk at the mall with those foam airplanes with like a 3-4' wingspan that would flip them in the air and they'd return, or he'd have a partner he'd throw it to.

When I was a kid, I hooked up twin motors on the wings with a battery pack and made that thing fly for hundreds of yards. I want to buy a couple of them so my kid and I can do the same thing now. I'd let him play with the motors where I think I'll hook up a couple of model rocket engines to mine

I've been on Google now searching styrofoam glider, foam airplane, durable foam....etc, etc, etc, and haven't been able to find anything like what I remember.

Any ideas?

 

[rushes]

When I was a kid, I hooked up twin motors on the wings with a battery pack and made that thing fly for hundreds of yards. I want to buy a couple of them so my kid and I can do the same thing now. I'd let him play with the motors where I think I'll hook up a couple of model rocket engines to mine

They went out of business after that big lawsuit because some kid hooked up motors to them....

 

[radman]

Here ya go-

Foamies

And the Google page with lotsa possibles-

Hand launch gliders

 

[Hit the Road Jack]

One of my co-workers has designed and markets his own line of electric motored RC airplane that can be flown indoors or out.

You might find it interesting. Check out the videos. WildRC.com

 

[vol210]

I remember some of those. Only about 35-40 years ago I got one when I was delivering newspapers as a prize in some contest. It looked like a small 747 made of foam and it was launched with a large surgical tubing slingshot put into the ground. I think they did go out of business after a couple of the slingshots broke and came back to nail the launcher. They were pretty cool, and rugged.

 

[johnny80s]

I used to love those things. Then some adult would come along and want to relive his childhood and chuck it as hard as he could into the sky. And the ******* would always land it up on a roof.

You should check out some of the new foam/electric gliders. They come prebuilt and are pretty rugged. If the two of you each get one then you can have remote control wars in the air.

 

[Sherman]

Check your local hobby shop. Foam has come a long way in the RC world. Building the wooden ones with a child is a great time too!