Others Will Fly Farther

Soaring Science: Test Paper Planes with Different Drag
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Well, what do you think? Would you like to start experimenting with these forces? In this aerodynamics science project, you will make a basic paper plane and then slightly alter its shape to increase how much drag is acting on it. You will investigate how far the basic paper plane flies and compare that to how far it flies when the drag is increased.

How will adding drag affect your plane's flight?

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But what allows the paper plane to glide through the air? This force is called drag. For any other use, please contact Science Buddies. But where should the paper clips be placed for the best flight? Why do you think this is, and what does it have to do with drag?

You can answer this question with just a flick of your wrist. The following resource can be used to convert inches and feet to metric units i.

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Compared to a typical science class, please tell us how much you learned doing this project. Try one of our science activities for quick, anytime science explorations. The perfect thing to liven up a rainy day, school vacation, or moment of boredom. You can find this page online at: You may print and distribute up to copies of this document annually, at no charge, for personal and classroom educational use. When printing this document, you may NOT modify it in any way. For any other use, please contact Science Buddies. Support for Science Buddies provided by:.

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Please log in or create a free account to let us know how things went. How Far Will It Fly? Introduction Paper airplanes are fun and easy to make. When a paper plane is flying, the four forces of thrust, lift, drag, and weight are acting upon the plane, affecting how well its journey through the air goes. A computerized matching algorithm suggests the above articles.

How far can a plane fly if both its engines fail?

It's not as smart as you are, and it may occasionally give humorous, ridiculous, or even annoying results! Learn more about the News Feed. Materials and Equipment Paper 3 sheets Metric ruler Masking tape 1 roll. Alternatively, if you are testing this project outside, you can use sticks or rocks. In your lab notebook, create a data table like this one.

For each flight, write down how far the paper plane travels in centimeters [cm] or meters [m]. Aerospace Engineer Humans have always longed to fly and to make other things fly, both through the air and into outer space—aerospace engineers are the people that make those dreams come true. They design, build, and test vehicles like airplanes, helicopters, balloons, rockets, missiles, satellites, and spacecraft.

They build, test, and maintain parts for air and spacecraft, and assemble, test, and maintain the vehicles as well. They are key members of a flight readiness team, preparing space vehicles for launch in clean rooms, and on the launch pad. They also help troubleshoot launch or flight failures by testing suspect parts.

Physicist Physicists have a big goal in mind—to understand the nature of the entire universe and everything in it! To reach that goal, they observe and measure natural events seen on Earth and in the universe, and then develop theories, using mathematics, to explain why those phenomena occur.

Physicists take on the challenge of explaining events that happen on the grandest scale imaginable to those that happen at the level of the smallest atomic particles. Their theories are then applied to human-scale projects to bring people new technologies, like computers, lasers, and fusion energy. Aviation Inspector Aviation inspectors are critical to ensuring that aircraft are safe to fly.

They conduct pre-flight inspections to make sure an aircraft is safe.

They also inspect the work of aircraft mechanics, and keep detailed records of work done to maintain or repair an aircraft. As problems are identified, they may make changes to maintenance schedules, and may be called upon to investigate air accidents. Variations Does size matter?

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Make planes of different sizes but keep the design and the type of paper you use the same. Do bigger planes fly further? Do more complicated planes fly further? Ten minutes later the second engine sputtered to a stop. Piche and his first officer, Dirk DeJager, with more than 20, hours of flight experience between them, proceeded to glide the Airbus A, without any power, for 19 minutes - covering some 75 miles - until landing hard at Lajes Air Base.

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Above a certain point, for many aircraft, there is a loss of speed over the ground for higher altitudes. Why do long distance flights fly at higher altitude when flying higher would increase distance? Why don’t planes fly higher and glide more to travel distances quicker and save. Some paper planes clearly fly better than others. The forces that allow a paper plane to fly are the same ones that apply to real airplanes. drag a paper plane experiences and see if this changes how far the plane flies.

The plane, which was forced to perform a series of turns and one full circle to lose the necessary altitude, bounced on the runway before coming to a stop. No lives were lost and the incident remains the furthest flown by a passenger jet without engine power in aviation history.

This should be of particular comfort to anyone feeling queezy after reading about the United Airlines flight yesterday that suffered a blown engine in mid-air. It happens on just about every flight. Smith explains that idle thrust is doing harder work than engines cut out altogether, but not by much.

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He likens it to coasting down a hill in a car with the clutch down. Different aircraft have different glide ratios, meaning they will lose altitude at different rates, affecting how far they can fly without engine thrust. For example, if a plane has a lift to drag ratio of Flying at a typical altitude of 36, feet about seven miles , an aircraft that loses both engines will be able to travel for another 70 miles before reaching the ground.

In several of these incidents, crews have glided to a landing without a single fatality or injury. One such incident took place in , when a British Airways on its way to Auckland passed through a cloud of volcanic smoke courtesy of Mount Galunggung, West Java. With a glide ratio of about The incident featured one of the greatest tannoy announcements by a pilot in the history of aviation. Captain Eric Moody addressed the passengers: We have a small problem.