5 3D-printable flying projects I made at home

I'll admit it; I'm not a fan of 3D printing things that just sit there. Here at XDA, we have another 3D printer aficionado, Jeff Butts, and he loves making sculptures, cosplay pieces, and such. But I need my projects to do something. Make it move, have it part of something bigger, turn your projects into terrifying monsters for your D&D campaign. Just don't have it sitting around doing nothing.

So, when I learned you can 3D print flying toys, you know I was all over them. Sometimes you can 3D print all of the toy, and sometimes you may need an external component or two, but the main draw is that the 3D printer handles at least 90% of the workload. So, here are some flying projects I like that you can try, too.

5 The Spinning Propeller Toy is super easy to make and use

A good beginner's project

If you're just starting out with 3D printing, or you're not in the mood for setting up lots of intricate moving parts, then the Spinning Propeller Toy is for you. In terms of printing complexity, you just have to print off one propeller with a stalk on its underside, and you're done—no additional construction or moving parts required.

Getting this thing to fly is really easy. Just pinch the little stalk then give it a twist as you throw it upward. The propeller should carry it the rest of the way and allow the toy to float back down again gracefully. Easy peasy.

4 The Flying Propeller Rip-Cord Toy is a 3D printable classic

This one takes me back

Did you own one of those rip-cord propeller toys as a kid? I definitely did. I think I played with it so much that I wore down the cord, meaning it couldn't even "bite" the internal mechanism anymore. That marked the end of my little stint with the toy, but I still loved it.

If you love these little guys as much as I do, why not 3D print your own? This flying propeller toy gives you everything you need to construct one at home. It's a little more complex than the above project, as you'll need to create three individual parts and put them together. Still, all the components you need are included in the print, so you won't need any additional parts.

3 The Hollow Flying Ring is a cool take on flying toys

I've never seen anything like it

When I first saw this model, I didn't think it could actually fly. Once I had printed out the Hollow Flying Ring and gave it a few tries...I was still convinced it couldn't actually fly. It turns out that you need to throw it just right to get this thing to fly, and when it does, it can go quite far. Here's how you get it going:

Throwing the Hollow Flying Ring doesn't take much practice! Hold it like you would a soda can and throw it like a football with the weighted ring facing away from you. Try adding a slight spin by flicking your wrist when you release the ring. You can also throw it with the wind for extremely long flights!

There's a little bit of learning involved, but once that's down, you can really fling this thing for an impressive glide time. Again, it takes a bit of assembly, but all the parts are included in the print.

2 The Windup Flying Butterfly is a project I really wish I could get right

Maybe you'll have better luck

So, I'll admit it. I can't get this one to work. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong; perhaps my print is off, or the band I'm using as the wind-up mechanism is no good. If you look at the GIF above, you can see the butterfly seemingly soar all by itself, but all mine tend to do is thrash around in the air before hitting the deck.

Still, I'm sure it's a problem on my end, because other people are reporting success with the Windup Flying Butterfly. Even if yours turns out as badly as mine did, you can apparently wind these things up and then close a book on it, so the next person to open the book has a butterfly flutter at them. It's a fun little prank.

1 The Flying Night Dragon may take some effort, but the results are stunning

Stick with it

Finally, there's the Flying Night Dragon. It looks simple at first, but there's quite a lot of delicate work that needs doing to get this thing gliding. You need to print it off just right, and then bend some of its parts to enhance its aerodynamics without snapping the resin. Even if you seemingly do everything just right, sometimes it just won't work. It can be quite annoying.

However, when you do finally get it going, it can soar for really impressive distances. Plus, look at it; it's a dragon! It wins on style points alone for that.

Take to the skies with these 3D printable projects

Regardless of whether it's your first print or your hundredth, there's a fun flying 3D printable project for you to try. Hopefully, one of these projects will be your new fave flying toy to mess around with when you're bored.