User:Emspangler/enes100/My Work P3

Write problem/project Goal
To build a small airplane that can float in the air as long as possible

My First Task
I want to look into already built models so i can the best ideas and incorporate them into my own design.

Summary of actual work over first weekend
Everything I planned on doing, I did. I found a bunch of different models with different specifications for different competitions.

Week1 Narrative
Over this weekend I wanted to focus on one question, how do airplanes fly and why. I came across two principles that i wanted to consider when designing my wings. The first principle I came across was the Bernoulli Principle. The Bernoulli Principle simply states that a difference in pressure; with low pressure on top and high pressure below the wing, gives the wing lift. Another principle that I came across was Newton's Third Law that simply states for every action in nature, there is a equal and opposite reaction. This means that as the wings push down on the air, the air will push up on the wings. When i design my wings, I want to take these two principles into consideration.



When I began looking at other models, I took a couple important things that I would want to incorporate into my design, the first would be to have a plane with wide wing span and stabling winglets. This allows my plane to be stable and fly far. Another important point I took from the other models would be to have a lightweight plane with respect to the wing span. So the plane could fly slower. The last point i took from the other models was the relationship between the center of gravity and rudder placement.

I went to michael's and bought some balsa wood. I also took some gray foam material that i wanted to use for the wings. When i cut out my wings and tried to glue them to the balsa wood, the material wouldn't absorb the rubber cement that i was using. I need to find another material to use as the wings or use a different type of glue.

My Second Task
This week, I want to build an airplane or at least the wings of the plane. Once I build my first model i will be able to modify it more easily.

Summary of actual work over second weekend
This weekend I did everything I planned on doing.

Week2 Narrative




















Over the weekend, i made alot of changes to my original ideas. First I made new 10 by 5 inch wings that are attached as one piece. Last week i was having trouble getting the two individual wings to attach so I was suggested to keep the wing as one piece which is what i did this weekend. I attached the wing to the balsa wood with rubber cement and let it dry for 24 hours with weight on top to insure a good seal. This weekend I also made a 2.5 inch rounded rudder for my airplane. Using the same idea from my wings, i made the horizontal piece just one piece and only had to glue the vertical piece which also dried for 24 hours.

I threw the balsa wood with just the wings attached and noticed when the wings are further back on the balsa wood, the plane nose dives. When i threw the plane with the wings more in front, the plane actually glided. Something i wanted to keep in mind was that the plane needed to be balanced. Since i don't have a propeller yet, i didn't attach my rudder to the airplane because i don't know close or far i need to attach it the wings for the plane to be balanced.

Video of plane doing a nose dive. Video of plane gliding

My Third task
This week i want to find a propeller for my plane and attach it along with my rudder. Then my plane will be ready for testing.

Summary of actual work over third weekend
How is what you did different than what you planned?

I bought a propeller for a glider kit and decided to use it in my own airplane. However when i added this extra weight to my airplane, the center of gravity was off. I encountered a lot of problems with keeping everything balanced so my plane could fly.

Week3 Narrative
Tell a detailed story describing what you did for your team over the weekend.

I decided to modify my airplane by adjusting the body. At first I had my original body on top of the glider kit one. The plane was too heavy in the front. I wanted to fit my original body into the plastic propeller, the wood I added didn't give me get a perfect fit like i had wanted. I took my wings and my rudder off my original body and put it directly on the glider kit body, so there would be a perfect fit into the plastic propeller. The plane was still unbalanced so i added drops of hot glue to the back of my plane to even the weight out. Whenever I would throw the plane, it would shoot up and do a flip. Since all the components of my plane were so close together, i felt like my rudder needed to be larger to help support the large wing, or that the wing needed to be further back. However whenever I dropped the airplane, it would glide down nicely. My problem was getting the airplane to that point where the plane would be comfortable in the air and just glide down. I remember that Zech in class had mentioned to Mirza about adding another smaller wing in front of the main large one to help the plane even out in the launch. I went back to using my original body and added the smaller front wing with a larger rudder. I was just thinking that i could hot glue my original body into the plastic rudder and then use a staple to attach the other end of the rubber band. I haven't done this yet but i will. i keep changing the body, making it longer and shorter, adding a front wing, making the rudder wider and nothing seems to be working. I'm starting to get frustrated because after all my modifications nothing seems to be working.

dropped video

My Fourth task
Record what you are planning on doing for the team during the final weekend of project work

Summary of actual work over fourth weekend
I planned on just finishing up my plane and that's basically what i did this weekend.

Week4 Narrative


After using the body from the glider kit, i decided to go back to using my original body because it was longer, lighter and i could place my wings in any location. Since i couldn't get my original body to fit into the plastic propeller, i decided to hot glue it in. This was actually a really bad idea because the balance of my plane was totally off, the balsa wood body started to arch because the propeller was so heavy. I used the end of my scissor to to scrap the glue out of the propeller piece. Since i noticed the body didn't seem that strong, i decided to reinforce it with another strip of balsa wood. I decided that i would try to use the rubber cement glue to glue the body into the plastic propeller and when i started adding more balsa wood to the bottom, i realized that i must have stretched the plastic propeller when i used the scissors to ply to hot glue out. Now i could do what i had tried earlier in week three and just stuff the plastic propeller with balsa wood pieces and use no glue. I was looking at my plane and i thought it looked kind of funny that the wing was so big and the body was so long but the rudder was so little, so i decided to use the front wing that had left the plane unbalanced as a new larger rudder. I was almost done with my plane, all that was left was to attach the rubber band and then i was ready for testing.At first i only stapled half the staple in and left the other end out as a hook so i could hook the rubber band in and out but the staple was too flimsy, so i just permanently staple the rubber band the airplane. Then i was ready to test my airplane, and these were my best results at each angle.

Short video of the airplane being thrown forward at 180 degrees. Short video of the airplane being thrown straight up at 90 degrees. Short video of the airplane being thrown at 45 degrees.

From my results, i can conclude that throwing my airplane at 180 degrees will give me the most amount of air time. To improve my airplane, i would want to construct my own propeller so i could dictate the weight of it. One of my main problems during this project was the weight balance of my plane. As you can see in the video, the front of my plane is too heavy, however the material i used for my wings was light enough and large enough to keep the plane lifted. With a balanced plane, i think my plane has potential to stay lifted for a long amount of time.

Complete Team Page
Team Done Page