Intro to Aeronautics I: Gliders
Learning Target
iCan design & construct a glider following the basic principles of aeronautics that maximizes its flight time.
Key Term
Aeronautics - The study of flight and how aircraft can travel through air. It is the understanding of how natural forces work in flight, as well as how the aircrafts design and function affect its ability to fly.
Day 1 - What is a Glider?
Glider "Selfie" Video
Key Term
Glider - a light aircraft that is designed to fly for long periods without using an engine.
Parts of a Glider
Gliders come in all shapes and sizes, and can perform many different functions. However, all gliders share the same basic parts. Take a look at the list of parts below.
- Wing
- Fuselage
- Tailplane
- Fin
- Ballast Weight
basic_parts_of_a_glider_worksheet.pdf | |
File Size: | 599 kb |
File Type: |
Glider Example - The Eagle Balsawood Glider
Now lets build a simple glider! We will pass out glider kits to everyone in class. BE CAREFUL! The parts of the glider are made of very light balsa wood, and are a bit fragile. Take a moment to decorate your glider in your own unique way, so that we know it is yours. Take some time to construct your glider following the simple instructions on your wrapper.
Next, lets get our glider flying consistently. Adjust your glider to do the following flight tasks consistently:
Next, lets get our glider flying consistently. Adjust your glider to do the following flight tasks consistently:
- Fly glider straight on one path, descending slowly to the ground.
- Get glider to turn(bank) to the left.
- Get glider to turn(bank) to the Right.
Day 2 - Use the Force! Natural Forces that Influence a Glider
Today's focus will be on the natural forces that impact the flight of a glider. Take a look at these websites:
Next, take a moment to label the parts of the glider in the Eagle Glider Assembly Quiz. This is your exit ticket to go outside and test your glider.
Speaking of testing your glider, there is of adjustments to try on your glider as you fly it. Take some time to make those adjustments, and record on the worksheet how those adjustments impact the way your glider flies, if any.
- Lift - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/lift1.html
- Drag - https://www.grc.nasa .gov/www/k-12/airplane/drag1.html
- Weight - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/weight1.html
- Thrust - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/thrust1.html
Next, take a moment to label the parts of the glider in the Eagle Glider Assembly Quiz. This is your exit ticket to go outside and test your glider.
Speaking of testing your glider, there is of adjustments to try on your glider as you fly it. Take some time to make those adjustments, and record on the worksheet how those adjustments impact the way your glider flies, if any.
Controlling A Glider
Glider Control Movements
Now that we have spent some time talking about how forces that allow a glider to fly (or not fly), lets take a look at the ways a glider can move and how those movements are controlled. There are three basic movements of any aircraft that can be controlled. Take a look below:
Roll - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/roll.html - Broke
Try This: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/turns.html - About Banking, which is turning with a roll.
Pitch - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/pitch.html
Yaw - https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/yaw.html
Take a moment and try to simulate these movement controls with your glider using your hands. Can you do it? Get help if you need to.
Glider Movement Control Surfaces
Now that we understand the basics of controlled glider control movements, lets learn about how we control these movements. Below are some links to websites that talk about the control surfaces which help an aircraft make the pitch, yaw, and roll movements. Use these resources, as well as search for your own if you want, to complete the "How A Glider Controls Movement" worksheet. Then, create these control surfaces on your Balsa Wood Glider and see if you can simulate these movements.
Aircraft Control Surface Basics Click Here
Rudder Control Info: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/rud.html
Elevator Control Info: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/elv.html
Aileron/Flap Control Info: https://www.grc.nasa.gov/www/k-12/airplane/alr.html
Now lets record these movements with your Chromebook or other digital device. Create a slideshow demonstrating your understanding of each of the glider movement controls listed above. Take a look at the table below for more info on what your slideshow needs:
Day 4 -Intro to Glider/Aircraft Design
Begin with BrainPop Movie on Flight and take quiz. Both are assigned in BrainPop.com. Remember, you will need to log in first. Ask for help if needed.
Once you have finished that, take a look at these game resources from BrainPop. They will review with you some concepts that we have talked about in class in reference to flight:
Once you have finished that, take a look at these game resources from BrainPop. They will review with you some concepts that we have talked about in class in reference to flight:
Day 5 - Glider Competition Challenge Day!
Glider Competition Overview - Each student in the 7th Grade Knights Stem Academy (KSA) will design and construct a glider built mainly from foam board. The goal of the glider design is for the glider to stay free floating in the air for as long as possible. In addition, there will be scoring bonuses complexity in your design and multiple builds.
Details - Each student will be given a 75.5 x 51 cm piece of foam board to construct their glider from. Students will need to follow our Engineering Design Process (Think, Do, Test) to develop their idea for their glider. Along with the foam board piece given to them, students will be allowed to use tape, adhesives (hot glue, regular glue, etc.), and paint. Other materials may be allowed according to teacher discretion.
Steps -
Scoring - Each
Resources -
Details - Each student will be given a 75.5 x 51 cm piece of foam board to construct their glider from. Students will need to follow our Engineering Design Process (Think, Do, Test) to develop their idea for their glider. Along with the foam board piece given to them, students will be allowed to use tape, adhesives (hot glue, regular glue, etc.), and paint. Other materials may be allowed according to teacher discretion.
Steps -
- Create a copy of the Blank Engineering Design Process form EDP, and rename the copy following this template: KSA YLN Glider
- Record the Glider Competition Overview in the Define the Challenge/Problem part of your EDP.
- Take some time to research foam board glider design on the Web. Think about your search parameters/terms for this research so you have the correct Google Search terms, and be sure to check out some of the resources below.
- Look for examples of foam board glider images that you may want to use as the basis of your design. Be sure to site the links to these examples Research Resources section of your EDP
- Narrow down your design choices to one or two image examples from your research. Include the image(s) in the Plan Solutions section of your EDP. You do not need to copy these examples completely. Think of them more as motivation or inspiration for your own design, having parts that you would like to include in your own.
- Design your idea for your glider using Tinkercad. We realize that your design may not turn out to be exactly like what you create, but take a try at it anyway. The scale of your drawing in Tinkercad is: 1mm in Tinkercad = 1 cm in real life. NOTE: your foam board is .5 cm thick, but it is difficult to get Tinkercad to go to .5 in a drawing. So, lets make any foam board representation 1mm thick in our drawings.
- After you have an idea of what you want to build through your research and your Tinkercad Drawing, its time to construct the templates for the four major parts of your glider. A template is really helpful in this type of activity because it allows you to think about the design and structure of the parts of the glider before you actually start cutting them out of the foam board. These templates will be used to trace the cutting lines onto the foam board. By tracing the templates we can plan out a more effective use of our foam board, reducing waste and conserving foam board material for making extra parts. You could also develop a second glider design from the left over materials as well.
Scoring - Each
Resources -
- Glider Parts Reminder Slideshow
- http://rcfoamfighters.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/003-11-540x405.jpg
- http://www.findmall.com/addon.php?93,module=embed_images,file_id=260804
- http://www.endlesslift.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Gliders-004.jpg
- https://img.rcgroups.com/http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~ccoetzer/15072006.jpg?h=rRzzzUGBuo5u1HOKt0d6Bw
- http://z0qtmgiq6l41973z10dw0c5j3.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/cardboardplane.png
- https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/3d/9d/a2/3d9da2af0746c289879dadbc41068eb6.jpg
- http://rcfoamfighters.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/IMG_0046.jpg
Day 6 - Planning Your Glider Design
Continue working through the steps of the Glider Competition details from Day 5. Our goal today will be to be BEGINNING Step 6.
Day 7 - Planning Your Glider Design WrapUp
Today we will continue our abstract planning for our glider construction. Follow the checklist below:
- Finish your starting Tinkercad drawing of your glider. Remember our scale: 1mm - 1cm in real life.
- Take some time to break down the 4 major parts of your glider: Wing, Fuselage, Elevator, and Tail. Create a duplicate shape of each of these parts, and have them out separate of your glider drawing. Again, these are duplicates of the parts, not the original part that is part of your glider design.
- Think of these parts that you made duplicates of as separate cutouts from your foam board. To trace the cutouts, you will need to make a TEMPLATE to use to trace around for your cutout.
Day 8 - Templates!
Its time to make our templates! We spent alot of time thinking about the dimensions and design of our 4 basic parts (wing, fuselage, tail, elevator) of our glider yesterday. Today, we need to make some templates out of this planning. Remember to use your rough draft drawings from yesterday to help you draw out your template parts on a piece of poster board. When you like what you see with your drawings, its time to cut them out. Make sure you really like your template pattern before you cut them out. If you run out of time to cut out the templates, thats ok, we can finish the cutting tomorrow. Also, MAKE SURE YOU PUT YOUR FULL NAME ON ALL YOUR TEMPLATE PARTS.
Day 9 & 10 - Glider Construction
Here are the steps to follow in Glider Construction:
1. Make sure you have templates for all 4 glider parts
2. Show Mr. Heyboer/Ms. Kroft the parts, and make sure you use the right words to describe them.
3. You will be given your piece of foam board to construct your glider(s) out of. Trace your parts on the foam board using your templates to guide your traces. Be sure to use your foam board efficiently. Organize your templates on the foam board prior to tracing/cutting so that they are close together, wasting little foam board. You will most likely need the extra foam board in the future.
4. Once you are done tracing, go ahead and cut out your pieces. The best tools for this part are either a utility knife or an exacto knife. It may be a good idea to practice on a scrap piece of foam board. Also, think about using a straight edge for long cuts.
5. Be sure to put your name someplace on each part of your glider. Also, write your name on your left over piece of foam board.
1. Make sure you have templates for all 4 glider parts
2. Show Mr. Heyboer/Ms. Kroft the parts, and make sure you use the right words to describe them.
3. You will be given your piece of foam board to construct your glider(s) out of. Trace your parts on the foam board using your templates to guide your traces. Be sure to use your foam board efficiently. Organize your templates on the foam board prior to tracing/cutting so that they are close together, wasting little foam board. You will most likely need the extra foam board in the future.
4. Once you are done tracing, go ahead and cut out your pieces. The best tools for this part are either a utility knife or an exacto knife. It may be a good idea to practice on a scrap piece of foam board. Also, think about using a straight edge for long cuts.
5. Be sure to put your name someplace on each part of your glider. Also, write your name on your left over piece of foam board.
Day 11 - Glider Balance
As we move from the construction phase for our glider to the testing phase, we need to think about the balance of our gliders. While balance points & center of gravity calculations can be a bit complex for aircraft, we will keep our method a bit more simple. We need to think about balance from two different aspects with our glider: Nose to Tail (Front to Back) balance and Wing to Wing (side to side) balance.
With nose to tail balance, we want to think about the performance of your gliders in terms of lift and velocity. Many of your gliders feel light to you, especially when you go to throw it. Now, you may need to rethink how to throw your glider for the purpose of staying aloft as long as possible. But, we do know that we need a bit of weight in the front/nose of your glider to create velocity. At the same time, a nose that is too heavy will cause the glider to pitch forward, which will work against its ability to create lift and descend quickly. So, it will take some testing, maybe a significant amount, to get the Nose/Tail balance correct. Some ideas for weight to use in weighting/balancing your nose are:
The wing to wing balance is also important for our glider project, particularly because our goal is maximum time aloft. One strategy to maximize our time aloft is to get our gliders to fly in a large loop spiral pattern. In order to do this, we can set our gliders to conduct a very slight/soft roll to cause it to fly in a spiral pattern. The roll can be controlled by offsetting the wing to wing balance to one side or the other. Check out the video below for more information on wing to wing balance. Note that this is for a powered foam glider, but the principles are the same.
With nose to tail balance, we want to think about the performance of your gliders in terms of lift and velocity. Many of your gliders feel light to you, especially when you go to throw it. Now, you may need to rethink how to throw your glider for the purpose of staying aloft as long as possible. But, we do know that we need a bit of weight in the front/nose of your glider to create velocity. At the same time, a nose that is too heavy will cause the glider to pitch forward, which will work against its ability to create lift and descend quickly. So, it will take some testing, maybe a significant amount, to get the Nose/Tail balance correct. Some ideas for weight to use in weighting/balancing your nose are:
- Tape (duct tape, masking tape, scotch tape)
- Pennies/Dimes
- Bolt Washers
- Other ideas???
The wing to wing balance is also important for our glider project, particularly because our goal is maximum time aloft. One strategy to maximize our time aloft is to get our gliders to fly in a large loop spiral pattern. In order to do this, we can set our gliders to conduct a very slight/soft roll to cause it to fly in a spiral pattern. The roll can be controlled by offsetting the wing to wing balance to one side or the other. Check out the video below for more information on wing to wing balance. Note that this is for a powered foam glider, but the principles are the same.
Glider Grading Guidelines
Level 1: Glider Construction EDP
Level 2: Glider Quiz in Edmodo
Level 3: Construction of two "Flyable" gliders, with degree of difficulty factored in.
Level 4: Flying Competition, 4 Second Goal
Level 2: Glider Quiz in Edmodo
Level 3: Construction of two "Flyable" gliders, with degree of difficulty factored in.
Level 4: Flying Competition, 4 Second Goal