Flight inquiry

Presentation

Process

• Gather and group questions
• For all questions in each group
  • Find the answer (see resources listed below)
  • Explain the answer on video
• Piece the video fragments together
• Present the video to the class. Video will be available your parents and teachers only.

Questions

1. History
   • Did some planes crash? Did people fall out of the plane?
   • Who flew the first airplane? What was hard? How did they invent it?
   • What was the first airplane in a World War? What was the first Boeing plane?
2. Lift
   • What keeps an airplane in the air? Why do planes fly?
   • What shape is a wing?
   • Do all planes have engines?
3. Stability
   • Why do some paper airplanes fly longer than others?
   • Do airplanes need a tail?
   • How can I make a paper airplane fly longer?
4. Wait, I have more questions!
   • How big is a Boeing 747?
   • What is the fattest plane? What is the longest plane?
   • Why are some people afraid of height but not of airplanes?

Resources

1. History Did some planes crash? Did people fall out of the plane?

• Earlier attempts
  • Web page, “Early flying machines” (Wikipedia)
  • Web page, “Aviation history” (Wikipedia)
  • Video, “Clips Of Early Flight Attempts” (YouTube)
  • Sir George Cayley, Alphonse Pénaud, Octave Chanut, Samuel Pierpont Langley

Who flew the first airplane? What was hard? How did they invent it?

• Leonardo da Vinci
  • Book, “Leonardo da Vinci, nonfiction companion to Monday with a mad genius” (Magic Tree House)
  • Video about recreating one of Leonardo’s gliders “Leonardo’s Dream Machines” (PBS)
  • Web page, “Science and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci” (Wikipedia)
  • Web page, “Learn about Leonardo da Vinci” (BBC)
  • Web page, “Leonardo Models” (Instituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza)
• The Wright Brothers
  • Book, ” First flight, the story of the Wright Brothers” (DK Readers)
  • Video, “The Wright stuff” (PBS)
  • Animated bibliography “The Wright brothers” (Schlessinger Media, Hero Classics)
  • Video “Wright brothers’ flying machine” (PBS)
  • Video about recreating their plane “Wright Brothers, First in flight” (Discovery Channel)

What was the first airplane in a World War? What was the first Boeing plane?

• Wold War I
  • Web page, “Summary of the air war” (firstworldwar.com)

• First Boeing plane
  • Web page, “Boeing logbook” (Boeing)

2. Lift What keeps an airplane in the air? Why do planes fly?

• Balance of forces
  • Web page “Dynamics of flight” (NASA)
  • Video ” All about flight” (Schlessinger Media, Physical Science)
  • Wright Brothers reenactment, “The Four Forces” (NASA)

• Gravity pulls the plane down
  • Animation “Gravity” (BrainPop)
  • Video “All about forces & gravity” (Schlessinger Media, Physical Science)
  • Wright Brothers reenactment “Weight” (NASA)

• Lift pulls the plane up
  • See what happens when you change the wing using an airfoil simulator (or advanced) (NASA)
  • Wright Brothers reenactment “Lift” (NASA)
  • Animation “Flight” (BrainPOP, subscription required)

• The physics of lift are explained by Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion
  • Web page “Lift from flow turning” (NASA)
  • Web page “Newton’s 3rd law of motion” (NASA)
  • Wright Brothers reenactment “Laws of Motion” (NASA)
  • Video “Airfoil aerodynamics” (PBS)
  • Web page “How planes fly” (UK Open Uni.)
  • Experiments
    • hero’s engine (NASA)
    • rocket races (NASA)
    • small flow of water running down and curving around a round object
    • garden hose flapping around
    • air out the window of moving vehicle
    • starting vortex in kitchen sink (UK Open Uni.)

What shape is a wing?

• See simulator; Google

Do all planes have engines?

• Google

3. Stability Why do some paper airplanes fly longer than others? How can I make it fly longer? Do airplanes need a tail.

• Stability means that the plane, if disturbed, will return to its original state
  • Web page “Stability Concepts” (Adam One)
  • Web page “Stability of an Airplane – level 3 (Florida Int’l Uni.)

• Three axis
  • Roll (lateral)
  • Pitch (longitudinal)
  • Yaw (directional)

• Pilot Control, see web page “Aircraft flight mechanics” and “Aircraft flight control system” (Wikipedia)
  • Roll
    • Ailerons (wing flaps)
  • Pitch
    • Elevator (horizontal tail flaps), see Web page “Elevator” (NASA), or Wright Brothers reenacted “Pitch” (NASA)
  • Yaw
    • Rudder (vertical tail flap)

• Static stability, see Acrobat document “Flight stability” and “Stability and flight control” (Glenn Fisher)
  • Roll
    • Low Center of Gravity, see Web page “Keel Effect” (Peter Kunzmann)
    • Angle the wings angle slightly up, see Web page “Dihedral” (Peter Kunzmann)
  • Pitch
    • Nose heavy (Centre of Gravity in front of Pressure Center), see Wright reenactment “Center of Gravity” (NASA)
    • Elevator (horizontal tail).
  • Yaw
    • Vertical tail

How can I make a paper airplane fly longer?

• There is no pilot to control position; design must be inherently stable
• Examples of stable paper airplanes
  • Web site “Paper Aeroplanes” (Peter Kunzmann)
  • Web page “A more complicated paper plane” (Jo Lovejoy)
  • Book ” The world record paper airplane book” (Ken Blackburn)
  • Book “The ultimate paper airplane” (Richard Kline)

4. Wait, I have more questions! How big is a Boeing 747?

• Google is your friend

What is the fattest plane?

• Google is your friend

Why are some people afraid of height but not of airplanes?

• Interview teachers

More references

• How can I make something that flies? What is the smallest plane that I could fly in?My pictures “Gleitschirmfliegen in der Schweiz”
  • Video “Streckenflug im Wallis“
  • Video “Gleitschirmfliegen im Fiesch Wallis“
  • Video “Paragliding with a GoPro HD Hero“
  • Site maps “Cascade Paragliding”
  • Organization “Schweizerischer Hangegleiter-verband“
  • School “Gleitschirmschule Engelberg“
• Lecture “MIT Physics I” (MIT Uni.)
• Article “How do wings work” (Cambridge Uni.)
• Web site overview “Guided tours to the Beginners’s guide to aeronautics” (NASA)
• Web page, “Up, up, and away, a study of flight” (Marion St Elementary School, New York)
• Various Wright Brothers videos (NASA)
• Feature movie “Colditz” (NetFlix)

If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. — Albert Einstein