4th Grade ALERT Top Secret Airfield
Your mission: To use your engineering skills to build paper aircraft that fly higher, faster, further, longer, or any other measurable goal.
If you fly an airplane across the room and laugh, you are a child.
If you fly an airplane across the room, laugh, measure the distance, and record your results, you are a scientist.
If you fly an airplane across the room, laugh, measure and record the results, AND make changes to your design, you are an AEROSPACE ENGINEER.
Making something as sophisticated as a flying machine from modest resources (paper, tape, and staples) is the beginning of an adventure!
Paper airplanes embody the scientific method.
Every throw is an experiment.
The paper airplane designer and pilot need to understand more in order to keep improving.
Hypothesis, experiment design, trial, and results—it’s all built into every plane and every throw.
To play with a paper airplane is to engage in science, whether you know it or not.
The most basic forces involved in paper airplane flight are lift, weight, drag, and thrust.
LIFT is the up-ward force generated as a plane moves through the air.
WEIGHT is the force caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth.
DRAG is the resistance created by a shape or material that impedes forward motion.
THRUST is the force supplied by a motor on powered planes. With a glider, thrust is more complex, since the only source of thrust is your initial throw. The energy from that throw is converted into momentum, which will stretch over the whole flight.
Good paper airplanes are designed to withstand a short, fast period of thrust (your throw). Once that thrust is used up, the plane needs to balance the remaining forces of drag, lift, and weight to stay in the air.
Placing the center of gravity slightly in front of the center of lift helps keep the model moving forward.
LIFT is the up-ward force generated as a plane moves through the air.
WEIGHT is the force caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth.
DRAG is the resistance created by a shape or material that impedes forward motion.
THRUST is the force supplied by a motor on powered planes. With a glider, thrust is more complex, since the only source of thrust is your initial throw. The energy from that throw is converted into momentum, which will stretch over the whole flight.
Good paper airplanes are designed to withstand a short, fast period of thrust (your throw). Once that thrust is used up, the plane needs to balance the remaining forces of drag, lift, and weight to stay in the air.
Placing the center of gravity slightly in front of the center of lift helps keep the model moving forward.
If the center of gravity is behind the center of lift on an aircraft, the pilot has to continuously provide control inputs to keep the nose down.
On a paper airplane, of the center of gravity is behind the center of lift, the model will pitch nose up, and then fall to the ground. This happens when an airplane’s wings are slanted too high against the airflow, known as a high ANGLE OF ATTACK.
On a paper airplane, of the center of gravity is behind the center of lift, the model will pitch nose up, and then fall to the ground. This happens when an airplane’s wings are slanted too high against the airflow, known as a high ANGLE OF ATTACK.
A STALL is a loss of lift caused by the airflow becoming chaotic over the wing. This happens when an airplane travels at too slow a speed, when the airplane’s wings are slanted too high against the airflow, or a combination of those two things. When the air can no longer follow the shape of the wing to generate sufficient lift, a stall is the result.
Balancing the forces is the first part of making a good flying machine. This is where CONTROL SURFACES come into play.
Control surface is the term used to describe the moving part of any flying surface, which on an airplane includes the rudder, elevator, and ailerons.
Control surface is the term used to describe the moving part of any flying surface, which on an airplane includes the rudder, elevator, and ailerons.
Rudders control the right and left movement of the plane.
Let’s look at a rudder turn. The pilot operates controls that cause the rudder to start deflecting air. In the drawing above, the rudder is to the right side of the tail. Air will hit that rudder and get deflected to the right. That will push the tail to the left.
Here’s the key: The aircraft will rotate around the center of lift in flight. If the tail goes left, the nose will go right. It’s like a seesaw, with the center of lift in the middle. The left rudder pushes the nose left because the air gets deflected left, which pushes the tail to the right.
Maintaining a neutral rudder is likely your goal for your paper airplane--maintaining a straight flight for distance unless you're experimenting with tricks involving curved paths or obstacle courses.
Elevators control the up and down movement of a plane.
Controlling the movement of the elevator is the way to control an airplane's pitch. It may be the most important control to get a paper airplane to do what you want--usually maintaining a long, level flight for distance.
Ailerons control rolling.
Ailerons look a lot like elevators, but they operate in pairs on the the main wing. The controls are arranged so lifting one aileron will cause the other to drop.
Rolling can be a fun experiment if you're doing it intentionally. Many paper airplanes combine the functions of the ailerons and the elevator based on how you bend the trailing edge of the paper.
Rolling can be a fun experiment if you're doing it intentionally. Many paper airplanes combine the functions of the ailerons and the elevator based on how you bend the trailing edge of the paper.
Your mission: To use your engineering skills to build paper aircraft that fly higher, faster, further, longer, or any other measurable goal.
If you fly an airplane across the room and laugh, you are a child.
If you fly an airplane across the room, laugh, measure the distance, and record your results, you are a scientist.
If you fly an airplane across the room, laugh, measure and record the results, AND make changes to your design, you are an AEROSPACE ENGINEER.
Webpage maintained by the Active Learning Experiences in Resourceful Thinking (ALERT) classes of Richland School District Two, Columbia, South Carolina.
Please direct queries to Mr. Kevin Durden.
