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Here's a video explaining my invention and how it works:
Here is the paper airplane launcher I built with my Dad for the Young Inventor Program in 2014:
We 3D printed the blue parts, the silver parts are aluminum angle from Lowes, and the white part is plastic I cut on the scroll saw:
You load paper airplanes into the groove in the top, and slide them forward until the wheels shoot them out the front:
The motors are from Radio Shack, and we made the wheels, the tires are O-Rings:
The motors are wired opposite, so they spin in opposite directions. There is a switch in the handle that you squeeze to make the motors turn. The battery is from my RC truck. It works just like a baseball pitching machine I saw.
Here is one of the first test launches:
I met with Jane Bard who is the director of the Children's Museum and she wants me to make them a paper airplane launcher. I got to test it out inside the museum!
Here I am showing people how to use the launcher at the 2014 NH Maker Faire.
It was a distance competition, and the winning flight was 42'3". It was breezy that day.
Here is a slow motion video we made of a launch - just like Mythbusters! (my favorite show)
In June of 2015, I exhibited at the National Maker Faire in Washington D.C. It outgrew the White House, so this year they held it at the University of the District of Columbia. I had brought three of my new launchers, and was demonstrating them.
My dad and I went over to the booth run by the Smithsonian, and they were teaching people about flight. They had a paper airplane competition, and their own paper airplane launcher, but it broke. I showed them mine, and offered to lend them one, but it was too powerful to use in their small tent! We tried it anyway, and it was shooting the planes right out the other side, and another 50-60 feet beyond that!
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