Tricked Out Rubber Band Plane

What you need: rubber band, stapler, one sheet of copy paper, and a ruler

What you do: Fold a standard dart style paper airplane. Fold the nose in about 4 or 5 cms. Unfold the center of the plane and place one end of the rubber band inside the fold. Fold the center of the plane back together and use the stapler to capture the rubber band. You should end up with a paper airplane with a rubber band sticking out of the front. Now, let's fly it. This may be the fastest airplane you ever built, so we need to be safe. Fly this plane outside or in a gymnasium only. Also, never aim this plane at anybody else.

1. Hook one end of the rubber band on the end of the ruler. Hold the ruler in one hand and pull the plane's tail with the other. Let it go.

2. Launch again, but pull the rubber band more this time. How was it different?

The big advantage to using this plane is we can control the force on the rubber band. Just always pull to the same mark on the ruler and the force will be the same. Keep the launch force the same for the next part.

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3. Try different angles and measure how far it flies.

Horizontal (0) ____________________________

30 degrees ____________________________

45 degrees ____________________________

60 degrees ____________________________

Straight Up (90) ____________________________

Which angle flew the farthest?

4. Use the wind to help you or hurt you. Try flying it into the wind. Try flying it with the wind. Does the wind help or hurt?

5. Investigate flaps. Turn the last 2 cms of the back of each wing up. You will have to make small tears to do this. Let it fly!

Now turn the flaps down and let it fly. What is different? Now turn one flap up and one flap down. Let it fly again. Experiamnet and have fun.