Easy Dragonfly Helicopter Class Pack

THIS PRODUCT IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE, BUT...The injection molded parts that I was using tripled in price, then became unavailable altogether. The similar blue Kelvin props do not work for helicopters (to be fair, they are designed for airplanes) and anyhow, they also doubled in price. I've known that wind-up helicopters made with homemade propellers fly several times higher than the commercial props. If only I could mass produce them to be competitively priced! So with the supply crash I finally started making stepper motor machines to mass produce the parts for the hard-to-make bearing. You can see one of them here.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/6l0bn9rgl8hkrjt/2022-12-13%2018.14.46.mp4?dl=0
The idea is that you tape the bearing to a fuselage (body) that's made from either recycled foam tray grocery packaging; or if that's not available, a balsa wood strip. Then you cut out the propeller blades from either a 2 liter bottle or yogurt/sour cream/cottage cheese container. You tape the recycled prop blades on--there are already slots cut into the struts so the blade is automatically at the perfect angle. Add rubber band and wings (either 1/4 of a piece of printer paper or thin foam) and you have a wind-up helicopter that goes higher than the tallest trees.
This new design is a little more challenging to make and takes a little longer but is still something older elementary and middle school students can make. I'm not ready to sell these as a regular project yet, but if anybody is interested trying these out and providing feedback, contact me.

A NEW LEAD: I did a search to see if the black props are available again and found this: not the same as the old back ones, but they might work? If you try these, let me know how they work.
https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Propeller-STEM-Projects-Inches/dp/B07792XL3X
I have some leftover balsa fuselages--1/8" x 3/8" x 5 1/2" that I will sell for far below cost to use them up, and I sell the 1/8" Tan Super Sport rubber if you do not want to get the large amount from https://www.faimodelsupply.com/ or pay their hefty postage for small quantities (I buy it bulk from them).
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For a dollar’s worth of parts, even a young kid (I work with classes as young a second grade) can build a flying machine, power it by winding, and fly it as high as tall trees. Very empowering! This page and video show exactly what’s involved and this video is an update, with some more tips.

The kit provides supplies for 35 helicopters, including propeller, balsa wood fuselage and high quality Tan Super Sport rubber band (I wish that office/school rubber bands would work well for flight projects, but they do not). You supply regular printer paper (1/4 sheet for each project) for the wings; or (recycled?) foam plates or takeout containers. You will also need scissors and tape.

Young kids will need help here and there, but even young kids can participate in every part of making the helicopter. You can see detailed instructions of what you’re getting into in the video below and the update tips video.

If YouTube is blocked at your school, click to stream on this highly compressed video file (16MB MPEG).

Kit for 35 helicopters

• 35 propellers
• 35 balsa wood fuselages
• High quality Tan Super Sport rubber band plus some extra in case of breakage (which I find occurs infrequently.)