At a Glance: In this activity, students construct America's favorite rubber band-powered airplane, the Delta Dart, using a pattern and materials found in the Delta Dart Kit.
Concepts: Students learn the principles of powered flight by flying their model and gain insight into construction materials and methods for small aircraft.
Details: The annotated Delta Dart pattern is cleverly designed to be both a construction template and the “skin” of the airplane. The pattern is taped face down on a piece of foam board and a precut balsa fuselage is glued to the pattern. Then, additional balsa sticks are measured, cut, fitted together over the pattern, and glued in place to form the vertical stabilizer and wing and tail sections of the plane.
When the sections are complete, they are cut from the pattern and glued to the fuselage. The plane's propeller is balanced and slipped onto the forward end of the fuselage. When the rubber-band motor is attached, the plane is ready to fly. Initially, students wind the propeller clockwise approximately 50 times and release the plane. To improve performance, students can use trim tabs fashioned from sticky notes attached to the wings or the horizontal or vertical stabilizers to control stalling or diving and to change the turning radius of the plane.
At a Glance: In this activity, students construct America's favorite rubber band-powered airplane, the Delta Dart, using a pattern and materials found in the Delta Dart Kit.
