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Goal: Our goal for this project was to figure out how to combine two different plane designs to create a glider with a built in propeller.
Building Process: When building this plane, we were not given step-by-step instructions which led to us having to make many decisions ourselves. We created the body of the plane with little issue, but when putting on the propeller we ran into a few problems. The very first of the problems was that the plane was bottom heavy, leading to it flipping over mid-air and not achieving the flight we wanted. In order to remedy this, we added a screw into the front of the plane, to add more mass to the front, moving to center of gravity up and stabilizing it in flight. Unfortunately we realized quickly the importance of this screw as we had put it in slightly crooked, leading to the plane veering right with every throw.
After we replaced the screw correctly, we were faced with the issue of the propeller itself. When we originally stuck the propeller to the front, we have to attach a rubber band to a pin on the back. But because the plane is curved along the top, when we did this the rubber band rubbed against the top of the plane, disallowing it from unwinding, and therefore not allowing the propeller to spin. In order to resolve this issue we decided to move the pin forward, closer to the center of the plane. In doing this, it raised the end of the rubber band to the center of the plane, stopping it from rubbing and letting the propeller spin. Although this was a good temporary solution, it did reduce the stretch of the rubber band, meaning it wouldn't unwind as much and the propeller was at risk of stopping mid-flight from running out of twists.
Another issue we had was continual nose-dives from being front heavy. To remedy this we simply scooted the wings backwards on the plane to move the center of gravity towards the back. Unfortunately because the wings were held only by rubber bands, they would continually shift back forward, and so we decided to place the pin into the wings, solving two problems, the placement of the pin, and holding the wings in place.
Even after this adjustment, we noticed the plane would still not glide, instead it would fly down. This was because the propeller was slightly angled down, causing the thrust it produced to push the plane both forward and downward. To fix this, we just tilted the propeller up, causing the thrust to instead go forward and up instead of down.
Results: In the end, our plane was not fantastic. It managed to stay in the air for a decent amount of time, but still had a general trajectory of down and to the right.
WhatsApp Video 2024-07-11 at 18.07.05_28d14e46.mp4Conclusion
In the end, there are many things we could do to improve our planes design. If we were to redo this, we would definitely secure the wings more permanently onto the plane to prevent them from messing with the center of gravity. Additionally, we would have to be much more precise when gluing on our propeller to avoid veering to either side. Last, we would attach the propeller to the bottom of the plane rather than the front. In doing this, we would be able to comfortably stretch the rubber band across the entire length of the plane, creating more tension and both faster and more spins for the propeller.
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