All my 6th grade students-- over 250 of them every year when I was teaching - made this project from scratch. Thin strips of balsa wood were challenging to work with, but when the kids put their finished creations to flight there are no words to describe the joy
Seeing one of these planes soar gracefully overhead re-defines your perception of the three-dimentional space above. It even re-defines us: we are creatures living at the bottom of an ocean of air. All my 6th grade students-- over 250 of them every year when I was teaching-- made this project from scratch. Thin strips of balsa wood were challenging to work with, but when the kids put their finished creations to flight there are no words to describe the joy.
Although this design worked well for us, I owe it to you to say: check out this other site, by Jan Nosul in the Netherlands, for a design that's make from scratch out of common materials. If you do not have access to balsa wood and propellers, these are the best instructions for getting started, I think. I asked Jan to tell me more about himself and how he came to model airplanes. His reply was so interesting that I copied and pasted it here.
I am experimented with a crude kind of "washout"--having less wing tilt at the wing-tips than at the root--by gluing paper that is curved down near the middle of the wing. Washout can help prevent a problem called "tip stall" which causes the plane to spiral dive.
The latest development to this project is making propellers from ordinary paper clips and the plastic from 2-liter bottles.
More About Jan Nosul
I asked Jan to tell me more about himself and how he got involved with indoor models. His reply was so interesting and funny that I am just copying and pasting from the e-mail:
Hey Slater
I am very happy to see, that this project can have a chance to help out kids around to start with this beautifull hobby. With your support this seems to be way more possible. I guess would be good to update the tutorial a bit with more explanations here and there about details, I will try to make it done asap. Also I will try to include trimming tutorial and basic aerodynamics behind it in an easiest way possible. A lot more can be done to explain the topic, actually every part of such an airplane can have a separate tutorial, so let us see what the feedback will be 🙂
Some info about myself. My name is Jan Nosul, I am polish, but I live permanently in the Netherlands. I am 35 years old, always kinda technical, I work in IT. Came to NL 6 years ago on holiday, and actually I stayed longer 😉
I guess the virus of such a flying aircrafts was in my veins all my life, since I think I got it with my father's blood 🙂 As a kid he was busy with other kids building big wooden outdoor gliders, and some of them he later on built with me and it was a lot of fun. A lot of flying toys were at that time available and popular in Poland, also people did not have a lot of money, so this was way more common to build toys by kids themselves.
Some time later I was reading about rubber band airplanes in few books and magazines, also very easy versions I tried to build as a kid, but without too much success in flying. Today I know, they were way too heavy. But they flew for short time and this was magic.
Last holidays we were camping with my girlfriend in a nice place and I made paper glider for fun. That was way more fun that we expected, both we played with it for quite some time:) I think that the flying spirit in me was triggered back to life at that time:) After coming back home I realized that this could be a nice new hobby for me, cause my long lasting hobby programming, actually is not a hobby anymore, since I do it professionaly for years, I needed new one!:)
So I started playing, I knew it would be rubber band powered. I came across ornithopters. And it was way more difficult to get some flying time, than I expected. I made a lot of this models, before got decent climbing flight. And I read on Nathan Chronisters page, that you actually can not build a good flying ornithopter from common materials, or its very difficult. I took it as a challenge;)
I made bamboo versions in the end, which flew ok. Its white version in this video:
I plan to merge this two channels into one btw.
The problem in the Netherlands is that its super difficult to fly outdoor in my opinion. Everywhere you have trees and water plus a lot of wind, so I lost a lot of models. That was not fun, so I had to go indoor as a natural process. Also I like to make sure, that the model I build flies, because of its properly made, powered and trimmed, and not because its too much wind 😀 So indoor and if indoor, than propellers - not ornithopters. And I carried a challenge of common materials built to this task as well. I thought propeller based airplanes will be way more easy than ornithopters and that was not truth 🙂 A lot of work has been applied to that, and I started adopting professional indoor practices like rolling tissue tubes, making pigtail bearings, bending wet wood and drying it, etc. So you learn a lot doing that, and that can be super beneficial for those all kids I guess. As Mike Parlang, US champion in the indoor flying says: There are many opportunities to advance your knowledge of what it takes to make one fly good (or many opportunities to find out what doesn't). Usually its the second one 😀 Lets hope those kids will be stubborn enough 🙂
Jan
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
Got some old boom box, computer or any speakers? The Recycled Speakers Phoneis an easy to make intercom.
I'd like to know how these projects go for you. I'm happy to answer questions about them. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
I have a new spinning paper glider design (and video) that is better than previous designs. It is just 3 folds on a strip of newspaper (“phone book paper” is not needed, unlike previous designs). The 20 minute video is unlisted while people test it and send feedback to improve the final, public version—and I would like more feedback. I need the fresh perspectives of people who are new to spinning paper gliders and are using the video as their only instruction. If you would like to participate, email me and tell me you’ll make the glider and provide some feedback, and I’ll send the YouTube link. It doesn’t have to be long—could be one short sentence. Of course, if you are able to go into more detail, how it might be improved, what could be presented more clearly, pacing etc. of course I appreciate that.
These are very difficult to get right. Unlike the spinning gliders, Origami Hang Glider is an advanced project.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
This video is a little rough, without sound, but the method is much simpler and faster than the old way. Also, the way to find the balance between stalling and diving is clearly laid out. The PDF cutting/folding pattern is here--no "fit to page" or scaling (100% scale is ok).
I'd like to know how these projecst go for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
It's almost eerie, the balloon floating in space and spinning furiously like some spacecraft out of a science fiction story! Pointing the hairdryer -- it doesn't even have to be directly under the balloon -- gives you remote control to hover and land. It's quick and easy to make, too.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
Here is yet another clever folk toy that uses science to puzzle and amaze observers. It uses it's potential energy to bob back and forth like a woodpecker. It was redesigned a bit so that even young kids can help make it. The classic version usually uses a tiny spring--as from a pen--but we simply use a rubber band for springiness.
Christine Nguyen sent me these pictures of her kids racing the climbing creatures...
...and they redesigned them. In fact, you can use any shape, as long as the straws are separated and taped at the correct angle. There's no functional reason why the straws must be at the end of arms. They could be in the middle of a lady bug, for example.
This creature that mysteriously climbs up and up as you alternately pull the strings down is one of the first science toys I set to figuring out as a kid. The only problem was that it was cut and drilled from wood--too hard for kids to make. So I have developed an easy-to-make version that uses thin cardboard and straws that even young elementary students can make with a little help.
When I lived in Bangladesh (in South Asia, next to India) I was intrigued as much by the musical instrument the snake charmers played as I was by the snakes.
I was so taken with the snake charmer's instrument that I bought one. How could an instrument made only of bamboo and a hollow gourd--held together with wax--produce such an exotic sound? I set about some research and discovered the motley reed family of instruments. Saxophones, harmonicas, accordions, bagpipes, clarinets, snake charmer’s pipes and even duck calls (ergo the attention-getting name "snake charmer's duck call") all use "reeds" to make music. And so can you!
This is a great project to do with groups of kids. It only takes scissors and a straw, and with practice you can play a recognizable tune on it.
Bounding Cat I...um...liberated it from a fantastic Howtoons page (note: the page doesn't exist any more) about making a related device, the zoetrope. You can just cut the slots the regular way--don't worry about cutting into the images.
Update: I have a friend who is a dedicated teacher in Germany named Thomas Buchwald. He makes amazing projects with his students and he has helped me improve several science toymaker projects, including this one. I told Thomas that many people, when they started using the movie wheel, the circle would rub against their hand. That stopped it too soon. In less than a day he figured out what I still couldn't figure out for years--that simply gluing a piece of foam in the middle would keep the circle straight. So if you have trouble with the circle rubbing, copy what you see at the beginning of this video clip. Thanks Thomas, for filling in my blind spots!
The instructional video starts with a science road show where my strudents show elementary school kids science exhibits, including movie wheels and zoetropes. It's a technology that's over a century old, but it's an unworldly experience that the kids get a huge kick out of!
Then it's on to making your own movie wheel. It is simplequick and to make--only about a half hour. The kids at the YMCA after school program help me show you how. The pattern you will use is here
They glue the pattern onto the thin cardboard, rough-cut and fine-cut. Accurately cutting the notches is particularly important to making the movie wheel work.
They darkened between the notches for the same scientific reason the best window screens are dark colored: to absorb unproductive light that would otherwise reflect into their eyes and cause glare. A paper clip provides a way for the movie wheel to spin. But the spinning images are just a blur, unless...
There are some tricks to using the movie wheel. The darkened side faces toward you. You spin the wheel and the look through the notches into the mirror (you need good light, too). Almost magically the images seem to come alive. There is a way to get around the need for the mirror if you have two people with movie wheels. Finally the instructional video talks a little about peristence of motion, the principle that makes the movie wheel work...and movies and TV.
Robot Hands work like our real hands... with strings attached.
Aside from the shear fun of it, making theRobot Voice 10 Cent Talk Boxreveals how we turn raw sound from our vocal folds into speech.
It's not high-tech, but whistling on anAcorn Cap involves some cool science.
I'd like to know how these projects go for you. I'm happy to answer questions about them. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
Christine Nguyen sent me these pictures of her kids racing the climbing creatures...
