Mandoman21
Member
Recently in a class I’m taking at school, we’ve been tasked to design and fly “gliders”. The object is to see who can get theirs to go the furthest (an easy design/engineering high school course). The parameters of the project are that the dimensions all have to be at or under 12 inches wingspan and from nose to tail as well. And the planes have to have a wing, fuselage, horizontal and vertical stabilizers. The issue I have with this project is that it’s not really displaying the characteristics of actual gliders due to the fact that we are trying to get them to go as far as possible in a straight line instead of testing them based on the length of time spent in the glide slope in a circular pattern like normal gliders. I’ve tried multiple designs including a swing wing that actually worked quite well but wouldn’t in this application for to the flying straight. (The wings fold out when air pressure from the launch has subsided to the point that they can spread. In order to succeed I’ll need a fast speed for the entire span of the flight).
I think that the best way to go about making a new design that follows the parameters is to launch the glider with as much speed as possible to get it to fly basically like an arrow. Small wings, swept back, like a dart. We are allowed to use rubber bands and whatever we want to launch, as long as the energy stored in the contraption comes from the person launching. Also no propellers. So I can’t use a wind up rubber band thing. 😕
Another option I brainstormed and messed around with was walk along gliders. Basically it’s a piece of paper folded into a glider and the pilot walks behind the glider as it flies with a large flat object like a piece of cardboard, creating basically a thermal that the glider rides on. I got my design plans cleared for this so it is legal in this application. 😁 I haven’t had too much success though with the gliders I’ve been building out of light paper.
If you took the time to read all of this first, thanks you. Second, leave any advice about which direction I should look when building this thing, or any walk along glider designs that are good and meet the parameters mentioned above.
I think that the best way to go about making a new design that follows the parameters is to launch the glider with as much speed as possible to get it to fly basically like an arrow. Small wings, swept back, like a dart. We are allowed to use rubber bands and whatever we want to launch, as long as the energy stored in the contraption comes from the person launching. Also no propellers. So I can’t use a wind up rubber band thing. 😕
Another option I brainstormed and messed around with was walk along gliders. Basically it’s a piece of paper folded into a glider and the pilot walks behind the glider as it flies with a large flat object like a piece of cardboard, creating basically a thermal that the glider rides on. I got my design plans cleared for this so it is legal in this application. 😁 I haven’t had too much success though with the gliders I’ve been building out of light paper.
If you took the time to read all of this first, thanks you. Second, leave any advice about which direction I should look when building this thing, or any walk along glider designs that are good and meet the parameters mentioned above.
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