this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2026
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Since no one actually answered your question: basically yes, you can just scale airplanes linearely up and down. Obviously everything has to scale, like propultion and hydrolics power, but you can esentially make a model aircraft the exact same shape as any large aircraft and it will fly. Conversly, you can test a small model in a wind tunnel and then scale it up as much as you want and it behaves mostly the same way.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number
Not technically true, but I think when you are scaling up from an A380, it becomes much less relevant.
I would assume at some point you would have to worry about structural materials being able to hold up to weight being thrown around. It is remarkable how much wings can bend, but I figure at some point joints would need some kind of alternative.
The planes pictured are designed to have ~25ft (8 meters) of bend in the wings.
Thanks!