PAPER AIRPLANES!
How come not all paper planes fly the
same way?
There are four forces that play into an airplanes flight:
weight, thrust, lift, and drag
Purpose
Weve added this experiment because the kids seem to
love creating and testing out their own designs, and we
wanted them to have one last engineering experiment
to cap off another great year of SCout.
What is aerodynamics?
Aerodynamics is simply the way that air moves around
things. This explains how airplanes, rockets, kites, and
even birds fly!
Weight
Weight is an important concept to start off the lesson
with because it defines further concepts well talk about
(lift and thrust). Everything on Earth has weight due to a
force called gravity that keeps everything on Earth from
floating up in the air.
Lift
Lift is the force that pushes things upwards. The heavier
something is (the more weight it has), the more lift it
needs! (question: how much lift does a plane need? Less,
equal, or more than the weight of the aircraft?) Examples
of lift: hot air in a hot air balloon, rotor blades of a
helicopter, wings of an airplane.
Drag and Thrust
Drag is the force that slows things down. The amount of
drag something has depends on the material and the
shape of the objectwater has more drag than air (we
move slower in water), and rounder/narrower things
have less drag than flatter, wider things. Thrust is the
opposite of drag, the force that causes things to move
forward. Thrust comes from jet engines, propellers, etc.
For our purposes, what is our thrust? (our planes wont
have engines, so the thrust comes from the initial force of
being thrown)
Procedures:
1. Designindividually! Kids can make
their own (or if they want, they can
work together).
2. FoldScouts, help with making folds
clean and sharp
3. Test! Depending on your teachers
preferences, the kids will be flying
their planes inside or outside (outside
is preferred). Line the kids up in small
groups to see whos planes fly
farthest!
4. If theres time, have the kids try out
modifications to their designs (making
slits in the wings, folding the wing-tips,
flatter nose/shape, narrower aircraft
body)
5. Test them again to see how those
changes affected the flight of their
planes!
Buzz words
Weight
Lift
Thrust
Drag
Materials
Paper! One sheet per kid.
Notes
Kids can decorate their planes (draw
strategically so that the images show
up on the wings and not lost in the
folds)
On the back of this sheet are some
suggestions for plane designs and
modifications
 Draw on Board!

Traditional Dart Airplane

Possible Wing and Nose Modifications

Increases lateral stability