Hog-nose airplane
"I want to fly." For as long as I can remember, my second-grader has been fascinated and obsessed with flying. As a 3-year-old, she desperately wanted to grow wings and was really upset to find out she could not really do that. I think it all started with Peter Pan. Since the first time she watched that movie, she's been dreaming of flying. It was a natural choice for her to choose Aerodynamics as a Science Fair project.
We had a great time working on it together. She had done all her research; watched countless videos on on Youtube and picked up a library book at school that had instructions on how to make various paper airplanes. Her hypothesis was to determine "if wings are needed in flight."
She made the Hog-Nose, the Master, and the Lock-back Jackknife airplanes, plus a Hoop Glider. We went to the backyard to test out her hypothesis and flew them all. The Master lived up to its name. It flew 13'15". When I had made the Hoop Glider earlier for a workshop, I was surprised to find that it actually "flew" pretty well. I did not measure the distance at the time, but we made an amazing discovery --The Hoop Glider flew 12'11" and came in a close second to the Master. The Lock-Back Jackknife did some pretty spectacular flips and went 9'11". The Hog-Nose came in last going 5'3 1/2".
Next, my daughter wanted to test out "wingless" airplanes to see if wings were really needed to fly. She cut both the wings of the Master airplane and flew it. It did a sort of flip and collapsed after travelling a distance of 3' 8".
Observation: Airplanes with wings flew; the Master airlplane with cut-of wings did not really fly.
Conclusion: Wings are needed to fly... unless you are in a hot air balloon, or you are an astronaut!
We used "The World's Greatest Toy Airplane and Toy Book," by Keith R. Laux.
We had a great time working on it together. She had done all her research; watched countless videos on on Youtube and picked up a library book at school that had instructions on how to make various paper airplanes. Her hypothesis was to determine "if wings are needed in flight."
She made the Hog-Nose, the Master, and the Lock-back Jackknife airplanes, plus a Hoop Glider. We went to the backyard to test out her hypothesis and flew them all. The Master lived up to its name. It flew 13'15". When I had made the Hoop Glider earlier for a workshop, I was surprised to find that it actually "flew" pretty well. I did not measure the distance at the time, but we made an amazing discovery --The Hoop Glider flew 12'11" and came in a close second to the Master. The Lock-Back Jackknife did some pretty spectacular flips and went 9'11". The Hog-Nose came in last going 5'3 1/2".
Next, my daughter wanted to test out "wingless" airplanes to see if wings were really needed to fly. She cut both the wings of the Master airplane and flew it. It did a sort of flip and collapsed after travelling a distance of 3' 8".
Observation: Airplanes with wings flew; the Master airlplane with cut-of wings did not really fly.
Conclusion: Wings are needed to fly... unless you are in a hot air balloon, or you are an astronaut!
We used "The World's Greatest Toy Airplane and Toy Book," by Keith R. Laux.
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