Airplane planters are all over the internet but I had a hard time finding one that looked like a more modern Boeing airplane. Since I’m a big fan of the Boeing 767, I wanted to build one that looked at least similar to the 767. You can use the method here to adapt to your own model of airplane and create your own custom airplane planter.

This is not a detailed plan for an airplane planter, instead its more about sharing the pictures so you can have an idea how this went together. You will need to measure and estimate and draw out your own patterns to pull this off. The bonus is this leaves plenty of room for your own style! You can also google the silhouette of a specific aircraft on google and adjust the airplane planter to a more specific plane. This is based loosely on a Boeing 767 airplane planter with the wing shape, dual engine, and 8 main gear. I cobbled this together from some loose pieces in the shop so a materials list would be hard to get accurate. I used maybe (1) 2x4x8s, (1) 2x6x8s, a handful of fence slats, a little 1/2 plywood for the tail, and 2 inch and 3 inch deck screws, wood glue. Tools used were table saw, miter saw, jointer, circular saw, jig saw, scroll saw, router, detail sander, and a drill for screws and counter sinking, and predrilling some holes. I’m confident you can do a simple version with less. I just grabbed what I thought was easiest for the task at hand.

Disclaimer: This is a free informational post but there are some links in this post that are affiliate links. If you click them and buy stuff, I may get a small kickback to add some dust equipment collection to my shop.

Main Center Box of airplane planter

The main box is made from fence slats and with the angles, it was a pain but with some patience, clamps, and a fair amount of wood glue, I eventually got it together. I used a Kobalt 10″ Miter Saw for most of those cuts. If I had it to do again, I’d probably build a square box instead of the coffin shaped box for simplicity and looks. I had originally planned to follow another picture but threw it out at this point and went rogue.

Wings

The wings are made of repurposed 2x6s that I ran through a jointer and then glued and clamped to make the wing width. I found a silhouette on google and hand drew a wing with a ruler and sander as an eraser. After I was happy with the design, I used the first wing I cut as a pattern for the second wing. Due to the angles, I found it easy to just clamp the piece to my table and cut it out with a circular saw.

The 2×4 in the center was required to brace it up since the wings were so heavy. Most joints have glue and 2″ or 3″ deck screws holding them.

The Tail

The tail section of the airplane planter was very much a ruler and hand drawn operation with pieces I had available. At that point, I was really wondering how I’d get the tail fins attached….but alas, as I added more pieces, I just solved the problems as they came.

The tail fins were modeled again on the silhouette I had found on Google for a 767. Its not a perfect match but I was hoping for close enough to resemble an airplane. When attaching the tail, some of those pieces were just held up and marked with a pencil for cutting. This saved me a lot of hassle with calculating angles. I would take the piece to the miter saw and just eyeball the blade angle and the pencil line.

Airplane Planter Gear

The gear were really simple. I used a 4′ pvc pipe cap to draw the circle on fence slats. I cut this out with a jigsaw and scrollsaw but I preferred the jigsaw for speed. It took ten total wheels attached to simple 2×4 T- joints. Glue and screw these joints for strength. Make sure when you attached the wheels that you consider where the weight of the plants will be and adjust their position to balance the airplane. You’ll also have to decide the attitude of the plane when you attach the nose gear. (Maybe you want yours to be angle skyward as if taking off?)

Airplane Planter Engines

The engines are made from the same discs as the wheels. One on front and back and then a smaller one in the rear to give a tapered effect to the engine exhaust. You might need a scroll saw for the smaller circle. The small slats for the engine nacelle or body were made with a table saw and then cut to size with the miter saw and a stop block to make sure they all came out the same length. These were glued on and then nailed with a brad nailer to hold them in place. The engine nacelles were just hand drawn with ruler onto a 2×6 with the aim of having an approximate shape.

Good Luck

I hope this helps you if you’re looking to build your own airplane planter. Leave a comment if you get stuck and I’ll try to answer to help you get going again. Its a fun project that gives you a lot of wiggle room for making your own design. Can you guess my favorite cargo carrier? Cheers. – Brad