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Home › Course › Lesson 3: Types of RC Airplanes
1. Welcome to the Hobby2. Safety & Rules3. Types of RC Planes4. Buyer's Guide5. Simulators6. LiPo Batteries7. Your Transmitter8. Flying Skills9. Airspace & B4UFLY10. Weather11. Finding a Club12. Maintenance
Lesson 3 of 12

Types of RC Airplanes

Know what's out there before you start shopping.

Know the Landscape Before You Shop

Walk into a well-stocked hobby shop and your eyes will go wide. Dozens of airplane types, styles, and sizes. For a beginner the right category is actually pretty straightforward — but understanding what else is out there helps you make a smarter first purchase.

Trainer Airplanes — Start Here

A trainer is designed to be forgiving and easy to fly for new pilots. High wings, significant dihedral (that upward V-shape), and modern electronic stabilization. Stable, predictable, and actively helping you stay in the air. If this is your first airplane, this is your category.

Our strong advice: Start with a trainer. We've seen too many beginners buy something cool-looking, get frustrated because it's too much airplane, and leave the hobby. A trainer is the right tool for where you are right now.

Sport Planes

More performance and agility. Often low-wing, more responsive, designed for pilots who have the basics down. A natural next step after 20–30 flights on a trainer.

Warbirds

Scale replicas of WWII and military aircraft. They look incredible in the air. Most fly like sport planes rather than trainers — not the best first purchase, but something great to look forward to.

Gliders and Sailplanes

Long elegant wings, designed to soar on thermals with minimal power. A genuinely different skill set. Ron has a beautiful 6.5m glider — read his build log on the main site.

Turbine Jets

At the top of the hobby's food chain sit turbine-powered jets — aircraft running real miniature jet engines that burn kerosene and sound exactly like the full-scale thing. We're talking serious performance, serious sound, and serious commitment. These are not beginner airplanes, and they carry a price tag to match, but they represent what many experienced pilots consider the ultimate expression of the hobby.

We mention them here because Ron and Tom have both gone down this road and loved every minute of it. Ron flies a Hangar 9 Aermacchi MB-339 — a beautiful scale Italian jet trainer. He documented the entire build in a detailed build log on the RC Plane Lab main site, and you can watch the MB-339 maiden flight on YouTube. Tom flies a Boomerang Ranger turbine jet, and his maiden flight video is well worth a watch — first engine start, first flight, all of it captured. Both would tell you that while turbines have their own learning curve, they're not as intimidating as they look once you have the experience to fly them.

Something to aspire to: Turbines are a long-term goal, not a starting point. But knowing they exist — and that the path from foam trainer to kerosene-burning jet is a real and well-traveled one — is a great motivator. Start with Lesson 3 and work your way up.

Electric vs. Glow vs. Gas

  • Electric: Clean, quiet, low maintenance. Plug in the battery, fly, done. Recommended for beginners, full stop.
  • Glow (nitro): Great engine sound but requires tuning, more maintenance, messy fuel. Not for beginners.
  • Gas: For large aircraft. Significant experience required.

Wing Positions

HIGH WING Wing on top — most stable Best for beginners MID WING Wing at mid-fuselage Intermediate level LOW WING Wing at bottom — least stable Not for beginners
Wing position comparison — high wing is most stable and self-righting
High Wing

Wing on top of the fuselage. More stable and self-righting. Standard on trainers. Best for beginners.

Mid Wing

Wing exits the middle. More aerobatic. Intermediate level.

Low Wing

Wing exits the bottom. Most responsive, least naturally stable. Warbirds and sport planes. Not for beginners.

What's Next

Lesson 4 covers our specific plane recommendations and the box label system — RTF, BNF, ARF, and what they mean for your wallet.

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