Is it possible, and has anybody tried (successfully), to “levitate” a model aircraft (1/72) using magnets? 
A strong magnet in the plane with the +pole facing downwards, and another strong manet in the base with the +pole facing upwards, I looked around on the internet but all I found was magnets to hold parts together - I want to do the opposite.
I’ve not tried it but knowing what little I do I think the magnets will try to flip around one another and taking the model with it. maybe triangulating 3 magnets in say the tail and wingtips and matching in the base might stop that happening.
Time to experiment with lolly sticks? but I would imagine someone out there has tried it already somewhere.
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It’s hard to describe how this would work out in simple terms, but if you’re setting the magnets up to repel each other and arranging them in a triangle, with the magnets in the plane directly above the ones in the stand, imagine each magnet replaced by half a ping-pong ball centered where the magnet is, and you’re standing the balls under the plane on top of the balls on the stand. Now imagine how small a push you’d need to get the three balls under the plane to slide off the top of the three balls on the stand.
To get a stable position using magnets, you’d have to do something like position the magnets on the underside of the aircraft in a triangle angled with their pole out and down, and the magnets in the base positioned wider angled in and up – and I’d have to go back to my copy of Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler or my Rubber Bible to work out the math for the positioning of the magnets.
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I remember Revell doing a series of in-flight kits in the early 2000’s that used magnetic repulsion and tethered by thread. I have no idea how well it worked. It was another one of those things I remember in the catalogue, but never could find on shop shelves. Went under the name ‘Magic Flight’.
Did a bit of Googling and found the Dr.1 kit on Scalemates. There’s a link to the instructions which should give an idea of how Revell did it.
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-09104-fokker-dr1--155667
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I’ve seen gadgets like that with super light objects. magnetic forces degrade rather quickly with distance.
You could perhaps do some basic calculations here: Magnet Strength Calculator | K&J Magnetics
You first need the weight of the model plane including the magnets you would use
It’s made by Ruixinda - search Amazon (my link won’t work outside Oz) if interested. I guess it proves it can be done, but not so much with your own model.
I guess that huge chunk attached to the airplane beats the purpose
I gave my son this as a present (he absolutely wanted it):
Repositioning it if it has been knocked down is tricky as F***.
It needs electricity to rotate, it rotates by using electromagnets in the base.
If power is lost for some reason the globe falls down.
It works just fine, it hums a little though.
There is just one minor fault, the globe rotates the wrong way,
it has the “sun” rising in the west and setting in the east …
The globe/ball has a hefty magnet in Antarctica, quite heavy actually
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Just use an Avenger TBM-3W kit 
…Or a Fairey Gannet
H.P.
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My plan was to have a 1/72 Fairey Swordfish dropping a torpedo over a sea-base, the torpedo entering the water, and the plane suspended 4 - 5 inches above the water. Starting to sound like a very complicated experiment which might not work! And according to the Revell kit, there are still visible tether lines. I’ll stick to my original concept and just have the aircraft on the ground. preparing for takeoff.
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Several years ago someone brought a diorama to a model contest that I attended. It was the alien ship from Independence Day inside the hanger. Magnets made it “float.” It still had one tiny part of the craft touching the base, but every time someone jostled the table in the slightest you could see it bob up and down.
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If I have to tether it in any way, I might as well make a pylon from clear sprue, or clear styrene tubing…or look for some invisible paint. 
Clever use of splashing water could support it.
I’ve seen that done in someone else’s Swordfish dio. The water splash from the released torpedo was made tall enough to contain the support for the plane. There was also a tiny-scale Bismarck included for a forced perspective, and with all forced perspective dio’s it only works when viewed from one specific angle. The model was excellent, but I felt the whole scene looked a little contrived, and too spatially condensed.
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The basic fault is that it’s upside down, if you rectified that maybe it would rotate correctly 
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yeah, I always have to try and try and try, it’s tricky but fun to repositioning…
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