Are you a teacher that is interested in providing a fun activity for your students that helps them learn about model aviation? In this article, The Science Guy, Bill Kuhl, explains various ways that a pilot can modify their big foam towline glider so that it will fly properly.
This article includes a material list, tool list, written instructions and schematics for building a smoke tunnel. The activity was developed by Dwayne Hunt and Carol Galica of the NASA Glenn Research Center.
Rick Shertle, a contributing writer for MAKE magazine, explains the steps required to build a folding-wing glider. This is an activity that could be fun for students in a classroom setting, or even at home!
Sir George Cayley, often called the Father of Aeronautics, designed a helicopter powered by a bow-string mechanism with feather blades (similar to the reproduction shown here). Later, he experimented by flying a model with multiple adjustable surfaces, allowing him to understand how every change affected the model’s flight. This model is a ½ scale replica of his original 1804 model. Cayley used the data from these experiments to publish his On Aerial Navigation in 1809.