Why is fuselage in two parts?

[TSOlympian]

I was looking at some designs online for free flight models and I noticed that for rubber powered planes, the fuselage is always broken into two parts, the motorstick and tailboom -- why is that? I remember for glider designs back when ELG was still Division C, the fuselage was always one long stick. Does it have to do with the motorstick having to be stronger and not snap under the tension of the rubber band?

Just curious. And also wondering if I can just use one long stick for my fuselage.

[_deltaV]

Hi TSOlympian, there are several reasons why the fuselage is in two parts. The motorstick has to be stiffer and stronger to handle the forces exerted on it by the rubber band, so its heavier. There's no reason to make the tailboom the same strength because that adds weight and this event is just a fight against gravity so a lighter plane = better. Secondly, some models have an offset tailboom so that the model turns. Two pieces allows the tailboom to be attached at an angle to accomplish this. Thirdly, some teams like mine that have to fly for invitationals like to pack our planes as small as possible. A removable tailboom lets us shrink the amount of space taken up by the plane.