How to make a lego plane ? Building with LEGO® bricks is so much fun. Our boys love to create fun and interactive LEGO® projects. They create their own LEGO® version of things and play imaginary with it. Today I am sharing Lego plane building instructions. The LEGO® planes are made by a five year old who loves to make paper planes all the time. So, he made these adorable two versions of planes that are so easy to make and take only a few minutes.

I think if your kids play with LEGO®, they might already have these LEGO® parts in their stash. However, if you are missing any I am sharing the parts lists at the bottom of the post. Moreover, you can substitute these parts with what you already have as with most of the Lego projects. Encourage them to make their own LEGO® designs with different parts to modify the ones here. You may also choose your own colors if the ones we are sharing are not available.

Here you will find Lego plane and Lego CN Tower building instructions with picture showing all parts required for each project followed by written instructions. The video instructions to make these projects is found at the bottom of the post. I hope you enjoy!

Lego plane building instructions

We have two different lego designs for the plane. Both are super easy to make for younger kids in kindergarten or even preschool. However, their is no age limit to have fun with smaller projects.

For your reference: The standard Lego pieces are bricks. Flat pieces are plates or tiles. Plates have studs and their height is 1/3 of Lego brick, however, tiles are flat with no studs. The shape and size of Lego piece is referred by stud count. For example, a 4×6 brick means 4 dots wide and 6 dots long.

HOW TO MAKE A LEGO AIRPLANE “REALLY” FLY

The question of how to make LEGO airplanes fly came up in our house at regular intervals ever since my kids started making them. “There got to be a way to make it move through the air without me holding it,” kept insisting my oldest son. There might be quite a few ways to do just that described on the internet, but I like my kids to invent things and come up with their own ideas. That’s why it took my son about a year to come up with this brilliant (in my opinion) way to make LEGO airplane soar through the air to everyone’s delight. And to keep doing it over and over again!

In the past year, we tried a couple of different ideas to keep a LEGO airplane in the air. None entirely successful. This year was the first time my 8-year old suddenly exclaimed, “Hey, let’s try a zip line from the top floor into the backyard!” I went in search of a string, while my son designed a LEGO airplane with the enthusiastic support of his 5-year old sister. On her insistence, most of the pieces used were from her LEGO Friends collection.

I dutifully climbed to the top floor of our house and tied the kite string to the rail of our balcony. My husband tied the other end of the string in the backyard. I hung the LEGO airplane’s string around the kite string and after kids counted to three I LET IT GO! It took airplane all of few seconds to slide down our zip line and come to a stop. We were a bit disappointed.

Now what?

That’s when my husband came up with the idea to attach an additional long string to the airplane so that it could be pulled up to the deck and be dropped down again. That was perfect! Really, really perfect! My son could sit on the deck and drop-and-pull his LEGO plane all day long (and that’s exactly what he did).

You don’t need a multi-level house to enjoy this activity. You can tie a string between a tree and a playground structure. A child can sit on a tree (as long as you feel safe with him/her doing that) and drop airplane and pull it back up. You can also find some multilevel furniture that can be used for this purpose right in your home.

On subsequent tries, we added a paperclip. Not only it made for a smoother flying, but also you can not see it, and it looks as if the airplane really flies.

What you need

LEGO airplane of your design or use our design for inspiration

Kite string or similar smooth string (for the zip line + for the pull-back line)

A short piece of string, ribbon or yarn (to go around the airplane and hold the paper clip)

Paperclip

Optional: Kitchen Twine or similarly rough string (for comparison and experimentation purposes)

How to make a LEGO airplane FLY

To start this project, you need to make a LEGO airplane. You probably can come up with your own ways to make an airplane, but I share ours for inspiration.

Now you need to attach a bit of string around the airplane. Just lift the front of the airplane, put the string down and put the pieces back down.

The zip line is a kite string we attached to the second-floor balcony and dropped down into the backyard so that the other end could be tied down there. Put the paperclip on the zip line

If you let your airplane go right now, there is no way to bring it back up! So one more step.

Tie a long string to the paper clip on one end and tie the second end around the deck rail (or put your feet on it, so it doesn’t escape from you and you don’t have to tie it)

On the pic above: zip line is on the right, and the left string is what we used to pull the plane back up. The left string is a kitchen twine. (It was a disappointing choice since it kept tangling up all around itself. If you are doing it for fun and not for experimental sake, use kite string for both lines).

So, now that you are all set up and know what to do, all you have to do is sit and drop your LEGO airplane, watch it slide down, then pull it back up.

My 8-year old son can sit on the deck and do this project for hours on end. I asked him what was so exciting about it. He said that it was that one split second when he let the airplane go from his hands. Every time he did it he expected it to crash and all the little LEGO pieces fly in all directions. But the zip line carried it down safely… almost every time.

The LEGO Airplane Science

Talk about how gravity helps the airplane get down.

Balance an airplane on one finger. Depending on the design of your airplane, the center of the structure might not be the best place to balance it. It’s because the geometrical center is not the same as the center of gravity. All the forces of gravity act on individual atoms that make up your airplane. The concentration happens in the center of gravity.

What force do you use to get the airplane back up? Pulling against gravity.

You may or may not want to link this to the discussion of an amazing device called pulley. My son is now at work inventing just the right pulley for getting the airplane back up with less effort.

In the mood for some experimentation? Mark how long it takes the airplane to get down on a kite string and how long it takes to get back up. Change the string from kite to kitchen twine. Note the time. Notice the difference? It takes airplane five times as long (or “forever” in the kid’s world) to get down, and it’s challenging to pull it back up!

Above is information how to make a lego plane.  Hopefully, through the above content, you have a more detailed understanding of how to make a lego plane .Thank you for reading our post.