Chuck Glider

Wooden Dowel Experiment:

Before we even started building the planes, we learned about some basic aerodynamic concepts. To do this, we were told to throw a wooden dowel and try to hit something from about 12 feet away. It didn't matter how hard we threw it; it tumbled and fell every time. This was because there were no features that stabilized the "plane", which is why we need a tail and wings. Mr. Dubick used this as a platform to introduce negative feedback loops. Negative feedback loops define what is safe, and when something goes outside of that range, the feedback usually brings it back into the" safe range".

Materials needed:

- Foam board

- Tape

- Glue sticks for glue gun

- Wooden skewers

- Rubber bands

- Clay

Tools needed:

- Laser cutter

- Razor Blade

- Hot glue gun

- Bevel tool

- Disk sander

- Triangle/right angle

FT Tiny Trainer Plans/Workflow:

We used https://www.flitetest.com/articles/flite-test-tiny-trainer to build our plane. This website included a video that we followed step by step; there were only a few things that we did differently. Mr. Dubick used the laser cutter to print the plans on foam board, which we then cut out using a razor blade. The pdf is in the google drive folder above and can also be found on their website.

How our workflow differed from the video:

The two major differences between our workflow and the video is that we skipped the moveable surfaces and we cut the wings differently. Hopefully, after we learn more about the forces acting on the plane, we'll be able to return to building a plane that is more complex. For the wings, instead of gluing the wings together first, we beveled the leading edge of each of the wings first. Using the bevel tool, we had to make two 45 degree cuts for each wing. This saved us an enormous amount of time and eliminated having to use a razor blade to cut the double bevel. After we had our two wings with the double bevel cut, we put a strip of packing tape on the back side. To make the wings hold together even better, we put a line of hot glue in between the two wings where it was kind of like a hinge and created a strong glue joint. Below is a video of using the bevel tool along with photos of the wings at different points of the process:

Flight Results:

Although there is definitely room for improvement, all in all it was a solid first flight test. Because the median of the class was 5.95 and our best time was below that, we received a B grade. Our times were 3 sec., 3.2 sec., and 5 sec. Below are videos of our 2nd and 3rd launches:

Issues/challenges:

One of the issues that we had to resolve was a replacing a missing piece to our plane. Instead of laser cutting a whole new plan on foam board, we measured the part and drew it in Corel Draw. The missing piece was the long spar that the wing folded over, so it was just a 19in x 1in. rectangle, which was not difficult to design. Our replicated piece seemed to work just fine.

A second challenge that we faced was putting the right amount of clay in the nose. Too much clay would cause the plane to nose-dive. Not enough clay would cause the plane to stall. To get an idea of how much weight to place in the nose, we put one of our thumbs on each side of the body of the plane by the wings and observed which way the plane tilted. If we had more time, we could have perfected the amount of clay we used.

Conclusion:

One of my favorite parts of engineering is doing hands on activities, and this first project gave me a chance to explore the introductory material by actually "doing". I learned about the basic parts of a plane (fuselage, elevator, fin, nose, wings, etc.) and came to realize the precision required to build a functioning plane. Our next unit is the mathematical side of aviation, which I am looking forward to starting. It will open the doors to moveable surfaces and give us the knowledge to be able to adjust variables to improve the basic design of the plane.