Paper Airplane Testing

Engineering | 30+ minutes

In this lab, students will create, test, and alter paper airplane designs. What keeps planes from falling from the sky?

Materials Needed

For the group:

• Paper

• Tape

• Glue

• Scissors

• Paper clips (for weight)

• Playdough (for weight)

• Paper airplane design book, idea sheets, etc. (check out foldnfly.com for tons of ideas)

• Testing area.  (Areas with 12 inch square tiles are particularly convenient for measurements.)

• Measuring tapes/yard sticks (If no access to 12 inch tiles)

• Worksheets to record results

Steps:

1. Look through design ideas and select the one that you think will go the farthest.

2. Build the airplane per the design specifications.

3. Test the plane three times.  Write down all three distances.

4. Add paperclips or playdough for weight.  

5. Make a prediction of how the added weight might change the plane’s performance.  

6. Test that prediction with three more flights and write those distances.

7. Change the location of the weight, make a prediction, test it, and write down the results.  

8. Move the weights and test it again, if time permits.

Explanation:

When you toss your paper airplane, there are lots of forces acting on it. (Things are pushing on it.) When air goes over and under the wings of the plane, it creates lift that pushes the airplane up. The airplane doesn’t just float up into space, though. Gravity is pulling your plane down. The amount of weight you add affects how much gravitational force is acting on the plane, but the reason we add the weight is to give the airplane more forward movement. When we add the weight, it helps create more momentum that keeps the plane moving forward. This helps to overpower the air resistance, or drag, that is pushing back on the plane. Lift up, gravity down, momentum forward, and drag backward.

Try it!

If you have time, try a different design, try moving the weight around, and do anything else you can think of to help it fly!

Real World:

The cool thing about paper airplanes is that they work just like real planes! Except, aeronautical engineers design real planes so that they crash less.