E-Book Overview
What makes paper aeroplanes soar and plummet, loop and glide? Why do they fly at all?
This book will show you how to make them and explains why they do things they do. Making paper aeroplanes is fun and. by following the author’s step- by-step instructions and doing the simple experiments he suggests, you will also discover what makes a real aeroplane fly. As you make and fly paper planes of different Designs, you will learn about lift, thrust, drag and gravity; you will see how wing size and ships and fuselage weight and balance affect the lift of a plane: how ailerons, alleviators and the rudder work to make a plane diva or climb. loop or glide, roll or spin. Once you have grasped these principles of flight, you will be ready to take off with designs of your own. Byron Barton’s clear diagrams and delightful drawings show each step for making the aeroplanes and illustrate the experiments suggested by the author.
E-Book Content
The Paper Aeroplane Book by Seymour Simon Illustrated by Byron Barton
What makes paper aeroplanes soar and plummet, loop and glide? Why do they fly at all? This book will show you how to make them and explains why they do things they do. Making paper aeroplanes is fun and. by following the author’s stepby-step instructions and doing the simple experiments he suggests, you will also discover what makes a real aeroplane fly. As you make and fly paper planes of different Designs, you will learn about lift, thrust, drag and gravity; you will see how wing size and ships and fuselage weight and balance affect the lift of a plane: how ailerons, alleviators and the rudder work to make a plane diva or climb. loop or glide, roll or spin. Once you have grasped these principles of flight, you will be ready to take off with designs of your own. Byron Barton’s clear diagrams and delightful drawings show each step for making the aeroplanes and illustrate the experiments suggested by the author.
Have you ever flown a paper aeroplane? Sometimes it twists and loops through the air and then comes to red, soft as a feather. Other times a paper aeroplane climbs straight up, flips over, and dives headfirst into the ground. What keeps a paper aeroplane in the air? How can you make a paper aeroplane go on a long flight) How can you make it loop or turn! Does flying a paper aeroplane on a windy day help it to stay aloft? What can you learn about real aeroplanes by making and flying paper aeroplanes? Let’s experiment to discover some of the answers.
Take two sheets of the same-sized paper. Crumple one of the papers into a ball. Hold the crumpled paper and the flat paper high above your head. Drop them both at the same time. The force of gravity pulls them both downward. Which paper falls to the ground first? What seems to keep the flat sheet from falling quickly?
We live with air all around us. Our planet earth is surrounded by a layer of air called the atmosphere. The atmosphere extends hundreds of miles above the surface of the earth.
Air is a real substance even though you can’t see it. A flat sheet of paper falling downwards pushes against the air in its path. The air pushes back against the paper and slows its fall. A crumpled piece of paper has a smaller surface pushing against the air. The air doesn’t push back as strongly as with the flat piece, and the ball of paper falls faster. The spread-out wings of a paper aeroplane keep it from falling quickly down to the ground. We say the wings give a plane lift.
Here’s how you can see and feel what happens when air pushes. Place a sheet of paper flat against the palm of your upturned hand. Turn your hand over and push down quickly. You can feel the air pressing against the paper. The paper stays in place against your palm. You can see the paper’s edges pushed back by the air.
Now hold a piece of crumpled paper in yo