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ziomatrixacs
May 02, 2008, 03:51 PM
Alrightyo.. I got a physics project dealing with the forces that make airplanes fly. My teacher knows I am very experienced with model airplanes and he even eliminated an extra credit category since I have an unfair advantage against my class mates. I am also being held barred against using google but I can use any other resources.

Here are the rules, I get 3 throws in two contest. I can use a different plane each time. The two contest are: Linear distance and Time of flight.

Linear distance is how far straight a plane flies.
It can go 3 miles to my left and 1 foot forward but I will only get points for the 1 foot. Where as if it flies 3 miles straight, and only veers off by 1 foot, I get points for the 3 miles. The minimum distance is about 50 feet, and I cant have a running start. If the plane lands behind me, I loose points!

Time of flight. I have to throw a plane and it has to fly for over 5 seconds. If it bumps anything , teacher, me , a wall, ect. The stop watch will stop then.

I can use any type of paper as long as it is a standard 8x11.5 inch piece of paper. I can not use glue, tape, weights, google, or even markers. If I violate any of the rules, I get disqualified.

Heres my problem, I suck horribly bad at building paper airplanes and there is no specification for using RC groups.com for help. The other students have the advantage of not only being able, but being told to just google up a design. This grade counts as 2% of my grade which is very significant! So if I were to end up with a negative distance and a negative time (such irony!) I loose even more points than 2%!

So if there are any guru's here who have a magic design capable of fulfilling those requirements, I would appreciated it vvery much if you were to help! I am able to have 3 planes for distance and 3 for time, for a total of six planes. 50 feet and 5 seconds is all I need to keep my grade, and if I get more than that, I get to increase my grade.

Yes I know the way grades are done is very weird, but the class is designed to work against the student and anyone who takes physics at my school knows its the hardest class by far..

stonerscolony
May 02, 2008, 06:11 PM
I wish I had someone like me back in the day...sigh...

Here I found the best one stuck it on my web server for you, You are not googling simply following a link...

http://www.stonerscolony.com/paperplane/nickplan.htm

:)

ziomatrixacs
May 02, 2008, 07:30 PM
:D thanks! Ill try to build it in a few. any idears for a time plane?

stonerscolony
May 03, 2008, 04:57 AM
Apparently this is a good mix of both both covering distance and time and after throwing it from the balcony here I can confirm both :P

ziomatrixacs
May 03, 2008, 12:20 PM
Ahg its wet and rainy, cant test it out side like I want. It seems to fly nice. Unfortunatly I have to toss it at ground level and if it goes too high, it will hit the gym ceiling and that will be the end of the flight..

Do you think you could toss it at ground level and time it then just pace it out? 1 step is about 3 feet.. I need to go 50 atleast.

stonerscolony
May 03, 2008, 12:47 PM
Remembering that a paper airplane does not have the structural integrity of a regular or even model airplane, So throwing it harder to get faster could actually slow you down more. Best technique if your height limited seems to be to throw it in a dart throwing action to keep the launch as level as possible, Any drag on the paper as it leaves your hand from a bad launch angle with cause instant drag and cut any chances you had.

Thats as much as I can think of the top of my head right now :P

foamnpacktape
May 09, 2008, 10:20 AM
I wish I had someone like me back in the day...sigh...

Here I found the best one stuck it on my web server for you, You are not googling simply following a link...

http://www.stonerscolony.com/paperplane/nickplan.htm

:)

A loophole, but surely you can't feel good about this. Ziom the teacher issued a challenge, I think you are probably up to it. Please reconsider.

stonerscolony
May 09, 2008, 10:26 AM
the best way to learn paper aircraft building is to play and test but at the same time improving upon a method already shown to be effective is exactly what RC people do all the time, Kettle calling the pot black here.....

foamnpacktape
May 09, 2008, 11:27 AM
the best way to learn paper aircraft building is to play and test but at the same time improving upon a method already shown to be effective is exactly what RC people do all the time, Kettle calling the pot black here.....

I put a great deal of thought into my reply, and re-edited many times, in an effort to get my point across as inoffensively as possible. I am sorry, but I hope you can see my point.
The difference is we are not directed to not do it this way. Do you honestly think his teacher would approve of this approach?

ziomatrixacs
May 09, 2008, 03:20 PM
My teacher didnt care. That plane was for distance and time, I really needed a specialty airplane that would do distance very well and another that would do time very well. I ended up spending my two hours to test trying to get it to do either one. The average distance I got was only 6.3 meters, and the average time was 2.7 seconds. I came in rank 13 of 16 i think. Got a C on the thing..and it was a test grade too!

The furthest distance was 24 meters and the guy hit the wall, it would have gone another 6 meters probably. The longest time was about 13 seconds

foamnpacktape
May 09, 2008, 03:44 PM
I am sorry things didn't go well for you.

Best wishes,
Foam. :)

sajeev
Jul 13, 2008, 01:19 AM
next time do the walk along glider

Airboatflyingshp
May 27, 2009, 03:53 PM
Try some of these http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1048028 and next time ask the oldtimers in freeflight politely ;) they have a lot of experience about how to make planes from anything fly. :)

ATONAL6173
Aug 17, 2009, 02:17 AM
Library
Amazon.com
search for paper arplane books

bwalt822
Sep 14, 2009, 02:19 PM
haha, just saw this but a walk along glider would have blown them away. It probably wouldnt be in the spirit of the competition though.

Flyingwingbat1
Sep 20, 2009, 10:17 PM
holy cow there's a lot of dust in here!