At a Glance:
Students build and fly a graceful rubber band-powered balsa glider with an 18" wing span.
Concepts:
Students get familiar with the parts of aircraft: fuselage, vertical, and horizontal stabilizers, and so on, and explore concepts like lift, thrust, and drag.
Details:
Students begin by assembling the Raven's parts – the wing section, fuselage, and tail. Next, they put the parts together and add a propeller and a rubber motor to complete construction.
First, students score and slightly bend each wing along a printed line to form dihedral breaks that are reinforced with glue and tissue paper. Then, the body of the plane is constructed by measuring and marking the position of the wing saddle and reinforcement on the fuselage and gluing them in place. A fin and a wing stabilizer are glued to the fuselage and a shim is added to the wing. After securing the wing section to the fuselage with rubber bands, a propeller and a rubber motor are added to complete the Raven assembly. To fly the plane, students wind the rubber motor by turning the propeller and releasing the plane with a forward motion of their arm.
At a Glance:
Students build and fly a graceful rubber band-powered balsa glider with an 18" wing span.
