Paper Plane Flying Contest - Science World Resources

Flight
Forces and Motion
ACTIVITY
MATERIALS
6-7 examples of paper airplane
instructions downloaded from
paper airplane making websites:
http://www.10paperair
planes.com
http://www.funpaperair
planes.com
Per student:
• 3 sheets of paper (preferably
recycled or reused)
• scissors
• glue or tape
• markers (for decoration)
• paper clip (optional)
ACTIVITY 8: PAPER PLANE FLYING CONTEST - 40mins
What makes a paper airplane fly? Air. How easily a plane moves through the air, or its
aerodynamics, is the first consideration in making a plane fly for a long distance. The
next considerations are the four forces that act on an aircraft– drag, gravity, thrust
and lift.
Planes that push a lot of air are said to have a lot of "drag," or resistance to moving
through the air. If you want your plane to fly as far as possible, you need a plane with as
little drag as possible.
A second force that planes need to overcome is gravity. You need to keep your plane's
weight to a minimum to help fight against gravity's pull to the ground.
Thrust is the forward movement of the plane. The initial thrust comes from the muscles of
the "pilot" as the paper airplane is launched. After this, paper planes are really gliders,
converting altitude (height) to forward motion.
Lift
Drag
Thrust
Gravity
Lift comes when the air below the plane wing is pushing up harder than the air above it
is pushing down. It is this difference in pressure that enables the plane to fly. Pressure
can be reduced on a wing's surface by making the air move over it more quickly. Curving
the wings of a plane will enable air to move more quickly over the top of the wing,
resulting in an upward push, or lift, on the wing. If the wing is too curved however, it will
have either little effect or perhaps even the opposite effect.
Long flights come when these four forces–drag, gravity, thrust, and lift–are balanced.
Some airplanes, such as the Concord, are built to move extremely fast. These planes, like
darts, do not have a lot of drag and lift: they depend on extra thrust to overcome gravity.
Planes that are built to spend a long time in the air, such as a Boeing 787, usually have a
lot of lift but little thrust. These planes fly a slow and gentle flight.
Activity 8 cont.
RESOURCES.SCIENCEWORLD.CA

Flight
Forces and Motion
WHAT TO DO
Instructions:
Part 1:
1. Print out various examples of paper airplane instructions and spread them out
throughout the classroom as stations.
2. Students walk around the room and hypothesize which one(s) will travel the furthest
and/or have the fanciest flight (spins, loops, spirals).
3. Their hypothesis should be based on what they have learned about the four forces
of flight.
Part 2:
1. Hand out the material to the students.
2. Each student is to design and build their own paper aircraft, keeping in mind the four
forces affecting flight.
3. Two awards will be given: 1) the furthest distance traveled; and 2) the fanciest flight
(spins, loops, spirals etc.)
4. Students are allowed to make up to 3 airplanes but only 1 can be entered into the
contest. No other sheets of paper will be handed out.
5. Allow 25 min for design and building and 15 min for testing.
KEY QUESTIONS
»»
Why did some planes fly better than others?
»»
What helps a plane achieve the farthest distance?
»»
What can you change in an aircraft’s design to turn the plane left or right?
EXTENSIONS
»»
Explain how you accounted for each of the four forces of flight while building your model.
What would you do differently?
»»
How do rudders, elevators, and ailerons change the plane’s direction? How could you
incorporate these into your design?
NOTES
RESOURCES.SCIENCEWORLD.CA