Science Projects With Airplane Wings
The aerodynamics and physics that allow an airplane to fly may seem confusing when read in a textbook, but students may understand these principles better if observing them firsthand. Younger students can use paper airplanes to understand the basics of how airplanes fly. Older students can work with balsa wood planes, toy planes and basic wind tunnels to observe more advanced principles.
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Basic Airplane Wing Experiment
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For students still in primary school, a paper plane experiment works best to convey the basic principles behind flight. If done as a class project, the teacher must hand out sheets of paper and instructions to students before leading a class demonstration on how to fold the paper into an airplane design. Then, after checking students' work, the teacher then has each student test his paper plane. Afterward, the teacher explains what causes wings to lift.
If done at home, a parent should help the student create a paper plane. The student should give his plane a few test flights, recording the results after each flight and bringing in the findings to school along with the paper plane itself.
Comparing Paper Airplane Designs
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For higher elementary school grades, compare various paper airplane designs to determine which designs produce the longest flight in distance and time. Students should create three to five different paper airplane designs and test each one accordingly. Change the shape of the wings, the length of the wings, the weight of the wings and the overall weight of the plane. Test each plane by flying it several times, measuring the length traveled and time spent in the air for each flight.
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Balsa Wood Airplanes
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Balsa wood airplanes help teach middle school students about the effect of winglets on airplane wings. Winglets refer to the vertical projections on the tips of the wings of some jet planes. The student must bend the ends of several balsa wood plane wings at various angles to test for drag and stability during flight. Use a plane without winglets as the control, and test planes with 90-degree winglets, 135-degree winglets, wing fences and curved wings. Test each plane by giving it multiple test flights and recording the results for each. After completing several tests for each plane, compare your results to draw conclusions on how winglets affect flight.
Toy Airplane Lift
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Middle school and high school students can use toy airplanes and wind tunnels to observe airfoil designs. Students must obtain four or five toy airplanes of similar sizes that are modeled after real airplanes. The student places the toy airplanes in a basic wind tunnel, holding the planes in place using a clamp on the rear horizontal wing. The student must then record the deflection of the wind from the wings at different air speeds to determine which design has the best lift.
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References
- University of Southern California: Awesome Airfoils
- University of Southern California: Searching for Stability
- Science Fair Projects and Experiements: Airplanes
- Science Fair Projects and Experiments: Wings and Winglets
- Science Buddies: Why Winglets?
- Easy Kids Science Experiments: Elementary Science Fair Projects
Resources
- Photo Credit Stockbyte/Stockbyte/Getty Images
