Informative Essay On Paper Templates

Goal The goal is to maximize the endurance of a glider through trial and error.

Prototype Description My glider prototype is based on design ideas found on the Internet and learned while earning my Airframe and Powerplant license. I planned a high aspect ratio wing to improve the glide of the aircraft. The aircraft looks like glider with a mid-wing and standard tail. Additionally, I wanted to make the glider as symmetrically balanced as possible.

Construction

A paper template for the initial design was made so I could replicate my glider should it be damaged during testing. A test glider was also built and used to make changes to the glider design without having to change the template before solid testing could be performed. When changes that were made to the test glider proved to be favorable, the template was modified to show these changes. The first constructing step was to have a design. I drew the design for the fuselage, horizontal stabilizer, and vertical stabilizer on a piece of construction paper. The wing design I traced from a toy my son has. After all parts were traced on paper, I cut them out and labeled them. Next, the paper templates were laid on top of the wood and the design was traced onto it. When all the parts were traced they were

The room temperature was 72 º F with no wind present. The glider was thrown from a height of 5 foot 9 inches. I attempted to throw the glider with the same force each time, however an accurate method of recording the throws was not used. My son, 6 years old, acted as time keeper. He started the timer when the glider left my hand. When the glider had been thrown with success I started to record the flight time. The table below reflects the throw and duration of flight measured in seconds. The average calculated flight time was 3.695 seconds. Although I believe that some of the times may be inaccurate, I did record these times in the