Pizza Box RC Plane Flies in the Face of Fancy Fuselages

Radio-controlled aviation can be an expensive hobby, and taking to the skies can feel like an unattainable dream if you have a limited budget. You have to buy an RC transmitter and receiver, motors, ESCs (electronic speed controllers), batteries, and, of course, the fuselage itself. High-end carbon composite models can cost hundreds of dollars, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t options for the budget-conscious. You can even make one with what you have in the trash, like a pizza box.

This build was done by the guys at the Flite Test YouTube channel, and it’s a fantastic example of what can be accomplished if you work creatively with the resources you have. The entire fuselage of the RC airplane was constructed from a humble Little Caesars pizza box. To keep the costs down, they used the bare minimum of electronics parts. That includes the RC receiver, a battery, an ESC, motor and propeller, and two servos for controlling the flaps. The plane is light enough that you can get away with an inexpensive low-power motor.

Building the plane is almost as easy as folding up a paper airplane like you did as a kid. Some areas will need to be reinforced for additional rigidity. You then attach the motor and other components with hot glue and whatever you have laying around — they even used a bottle cap to hold the motor in place. The completed pizza box plane actually flies remarkably well, which just goes to show that you don’t need a lot of money to create something amazing.