This is a class set
Paper Airplane Lab
For this activity, we will be working with the three main principals of aviation to create an efficient paper airplane.
You will be running trials and altering your prototype to create the best shape.
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Archimedes’ Principle – “An object surrounded by air is buoyed up by a force equal to the weight of the air
displaced”. Heaver objects will need to have a broader wing span to displace more air.
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Bernoulli’s Principle – “When the speed of a fluid increases, pressure in the fluid decreases”. In this case, the
fluid is air. In order for a plane to stay airborne, there must be less pressure above the wing then below it. This
allows the greater bottom pressure to exert an upward force on the wing, giving the plane lift. In order to
accomplish this, wings tend to have a greater surface area on the tops than the bottoms. Picture the curved,
slightly upturned, top of a wing. Now, as the plane moves through the air, wind must travel faster over the
curved top of the wing than the flat bottom of the wing, providing lift.
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The principal of Air Resistance – Friction causes drag, an opposing force to the forward motion of the plane. In
order to decrease air resistance, an aerodynamic design that allows the plane to “slice” through the air. Possible
design accommodations should include a pointed nose and smooth body.
While constructing your plane we will focus on the three main concepts, weight, stability and winglets.
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How does plane weight affect flight? The simple answer is weight forward is good. In every object there is a
center of gravity, a neutral point where all of the mass is balanced. If an airplane has a center of gravity ahead of
the neutral point, then this plane is stable. If this center of gravity is behind the neutral point then it becomes
unstable causing nose-dives and spins. What is stability?
Stability means that the plane, if disturbed, will return to its original state. A stable airplane
tends to oscillate up and down a few times, but converge on a steady flight. Many typical paper airplane designs
are stable, but just barely. A plane that is unstable will either pitch up into a stall, or nose-dive, but won’t settle
out anywhere in-between. As a plane becomes more and more stable, it wants to fly faster and faster. To counter
this tendency, up elevator must be used to produce a good trim airspeed. This is why many of the classic paper
airplane designs are nearly neutrally stable. Few people realize good pitch stability requires a heavy nose and
some up elevator. The classic designs rely on the small inherent "up elevator" effect (positive zero lift pitching
moment) resulting from the swept wing, and possibly the airfoil shape. Thus many classic paper airplanes can be
flown with no elevator adjustment. Sometimes they fly well, many times they don't, and they always have poor
stability. What is the importance of winglets? The Fuselage acts like the vertical stabilizer of real airplanes. Sometimes
bending the wingtips up on paper airplanes also helps to add directional stability. The combination of the fuselage
and wingtips on paper airplanes allows them to have positive directional stability. This stability is provided in real
airplanes by a vertical tail. •
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Materials
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Paper
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Paper Clips
Procedure
1. Choose a basic paper airplane model that you will be able to easily repeat.
2. Create three of these airplanes
3. Follow the lab sheet to test how to increase the distance your plane will travel.
4. Create an airplane that you will fly against other teams.
Hypothesis
Write a hypothesis for each trial of your resign below.
Davis APES
This is a class set
Data Analysis
**If you did this in a group, you can have the same data tables and graphs.
a) To vary the weight of your airplane, fold the nose over varying lengths to make a shorter body.
Hypothesis
Length of Flight
Stability
Control Plane
Size of Fold 1 =
Size of Fold 2 =
Stability = does it wobble, nose dive, do loopty-loops?
b) To vary the stability of your plane, create winglets by folding the ends of the wings up or down
Hypothesis
Length of Flight
Stability
Length of Flight
Stability
Control Plane
Winglets Up
Winglets Down
c) Add paper clips to different areas of the plane to experiment with weight distribution.
Hypothesis
Control Plane
Location of clip 1=
Location of clip 2 =
Discussion
** This part must be your own original idea, do not copy!
Explain exactly what happened in the trials.
 Which plane went farthest from each trial?
 This is not procedure; do not tell me what we did, tell me what the data shows.
Conclusion
** This part must be your own original idea, do not copy!
First paragraph: (This can earn you a max of 2 points)
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What did we learn from doing this experiment?
Were your hypotheses correct?
What combination of modifications would make the best plane?
Second Paragraph: (This can earn you a max of 2 points)
Using information from your notes and data from the lab explain;
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Why would an airplane need winglets?
Explain why an airplane carrying people needs to have long wings but a jet can have short triangle wings.
**If you need help with any part of the lab please come to tutoring, Tuesday after school  **
Davis APES