12-23-08

On December 23rd in Mr. Manning's Physics class there was an epic paper airplane throwing contest. The day before the students were given three different paper airplane designs to choose from. They were allowed to make any adjustments to the plane as long as the original shape was kept somewhat intact. On the day of the contest, the students threw their paper airplanes. My airplane went a considerable distance of 0.3 meters. with no deviation from the origin. Excluding Mr. Manning, Diego Vargas came in third place with a score of 3.1, Annie Feingold and Danny Way in 2nd with a score of 5.5 and Bui and Rasp in first with 7.3 total points. It is important to note some points that were concluded from observing the different airplanes and their flights. By bending the back edge of the plane down the plane would fly faster. If the back edge of the plane was bent up it would fly slower, and it would also have more time to glide. Differing from many actual planes the paper airplane does not require a tail to fly or glide successfully. The fuselage of the paper airplane acts as the vertical stabilizer of real planes. Also, bending the wing tips of a paper airplane adds directional stability. Paper planes with short wings are more apt to be thrown harder to achieve large displacement. Planes with longer wings are better designed to glide through the air. These planes cannot be thrown hard, however. To prevent the plane from drastically pitching upward or downward a paper plane requires a heavy nose and an upwardly shaped elevator (back edge for paper airplanes).