Science Experiment-Flying!

For science today, I built a model airplane. I used cardboard, glue, a fastener, a plastic propeller, and a rubber band. As you probably guessed from the materials, it was rubber-band powered. In 1899, Orville and Wilbur Wright started experimenting with flying machine. Four years after they started experimenting, they became the first humans to perform a controlled, powered flight. Today, the plane that I built was a simple toy, but it demonstrated some of the most important theories and laws in flight. I was able to get it to fly for several, feet, before it would nose-dive and destroy itself on the nearest hard surface.

The first step in building the plane was to assemble the fuselage. I folded the perforated piece of cardboard from my kit into a triangular tube. This would be the main part of my aircraft. After the fuselage dried, I worked on creating the rudder assembly. This consisted of three small pieces of cardboard. When these were all glued together and done drying, I glued them, along with the main wing, onto the fuselage. After I had let it dry, it was time to start flying!

The first flight attempt failed miserably. The plane would fly for about 3 feet, then abruptly nosedive into the ground. It did this several times, and once knocked the propeller out of it’s socket. I tried attaching several coins to the front of the plane, just behind the propeller. This dramatically improved the performance of it, and stabilized it’s flight. It would go much farther now, around 20 feet.

I’ve built thousands of paper and rubber-band airplanes. It never gets old, though. It’s always amazing how you can turn come cardboard, a propeller, and a rubber band into something that can fly. Below, I have some pictures of my plane on the ground, and some slightly photoshopped pictures of it in the air.