How to Build a Toy Airplane

This wooden toy airplane takes your shop’s scrap lumber and turns it into a wonderful heirloom gift.

It was the middle of the 1980s, I was self-employed, times were lean, and the holidays were fast approaching. Although my children were small, I still wanted to give them something special — and, as I had more time and wood than I did money, I decided to build each of them a wooden toy. This airplane is based on the one that I gave my son that year. This version has a couple of improvements … it has a pilot that is secured by a magnet, and it has wooden axles and pegs where the original had screws, but all in all, it is the same airplane that was played with for many years after that Christmas.

Before You Get Started

Before you get started on putting the piece together, you’ll need these sometimes difficult to find parts for the finished product.

Maple Pegs (1 pack required) #21691
Maple Axles (1 pack required) #21725
Pilot (1) #21865
Rare Earth Magnets (1 pk of 10) #37554
Wing Cutter (1) #42887

For the Airplane’s Diagram and Materials List, click here to download the PDF.

First Things First

Cut out the template, and use it to mark your blanks for the wings and fuselage before you start making cuts.

I fabricated templates for the wings, propeller and fuselage from 1/4″ hardboard. Even if you are making only one of these, I would take the time to make templates. If you decide to make a few, they’re a must-do task.

Using a 7/8″ Forstner bit, drill down into the blank until you have a “seat” for the plane’s pilot.

The fuselage (piece 1) is made from 1-3⁄4″ stock. You can glue up stock to get to that thickness if you need to. Mill the fuselage blank to size and then trace out the shape using your template. Mark the fuselage with the locations of the axle holes and the pilot’s seat. Although it may seem odd, the next thing to do is to chuck a 7/8″ Forstner bit into your drill press and bore the hole for the little pilot (piece 2).

Using your bandsaw, begin by cutting out the tail of the fuselage, leaving the front squared up for the time being.

With that done, move to the band saw and saw out the tail section of the plane, leaving the rest of the blank squared up. The reason for this is that you will now narrow the tail section on your jointer. (If you don’t have a jointer, you can do this on the band saw.)

Use the jointer (or bandsaw) to cut down the tail section narrower than the main body, the shop-made pushblock shown will aid in the process.

The way I skinnied-up the tail section of the plane was by setting my jointer to its deepest cut, clamping a stop block onto the outfeed table and carefully advancing the blank over the cutterhead. Note that I used a shop-made push block that is almost as long as the fuselage blank. The part of the blank that remains squared up is held securely against the fence. Do this to both sides.

For the Fuselage Diagram, click here to download the PDF.

Now you can take the fuselage blank back to the band saw and cut out the front section of the fuselage. Go ahead and drill the axle holes and peg hole for the propeller, then set it aside for now.

Use 1/2″ stock for the plane’s wings at a 7° angle, if you use a long enough piece of stock, you can make both wings from the same section.

Make the wing (piece 3) out of 1/2″-thick stock. Before you cut the wing down to length, it is a good idea to cut an over-long piece to width so that it will be easier and safer to cut the 7° angle onto the top face of the wing. Note that I used a featherboard and push stick for this procedure.

At this point, you can go ahead and trace the wing’s end shapes onto the blank and saw it out using a band saw or scroll saw. Bore the mounting peg holes and set the wing aside.