Monday, January 31, 2011

HOW TO MAKE PAPER AIRPLANES THAT FLY FOR A LONG TIME

Everyone....wants to test their paper airplane at some point. After all, the reason we build them is to fly them. And every airplane that has ever been built has had some testing done on it to make sure that it flies properly.

But have you ever put any thought into how your throw your airplanes? The design is important to the overall flight of the airplane, but sometimes you might have a paper plane that is designed so well, but it just doesn‘t want to fly. Why is this? It could be the way you throw your airplane.

My 5-year-old brother has a heck of a time throwing his paper airplane properly. This is because he doesn‘t understand how to release and the toss affect the flight of the airplane. For that matter, many kids and adults alike have a tough time throwing a paper plane properly.

So, what do you have to do when..... you throw your paper airplane? Here are a few things that you need to keep in mind:

Find the place on the handle of the airplane where the center of gravity is. We‘ll show you how to do this later in this chapter. This is going to give you the greatest chance of throwing the paper airplane properly.

Throw the airplane with enough force to get it moving swiftly through the air, but not too much that it just hit the ground, or the nose lifts up in the air because it has too much thrust.

You need to throw your airplane at, or near, level. If you throw it with the nose down, there is a good chance it will continue downward and have a hard crash. If you throw it with the nose up, you will probably keep going straight up, and create too much drag. These are the types of airplanes that fly straight up, and then come back straight toward you.

Checking for the center of gravity:

This is very important in order to get everything set for your airplane to glide freely upon the air. A proper center of gravity is crucial for anything to work well. It doesn‘t matter if it is an athlete, a car, or a paper airplane. A good strong point for center of gravity is important to make sure that all the other moving parts are working together.

Before we get to how to find the center of gravity, some of you are probably wondering what exactly the center of gravity is.

Everything has atoms. And the forces of gravity act on each atom. With an airplane, they have a force that pulls down on one point called the center of gravity. At the center of gravity, an airplane will literally balance on one finger.

If you are trying to find the center of gravity, and you believe you have found it, mark it with a pencil, so you know where to hold the paper airplane before you throw it.

Here is a surefire method for checking if you are grabbing the right point on your airplane for the best center of gravity“

Get a large fan one that blows out a low of air.

Hold the airplane very loosely between your index finger and your thumb and the nose of the plane should be pointing to the floor.

Slowly drop the plane (still holding on and facing the nose down to the floor) into the draft of the fan. You should still be able to hold on the airplane and have it balance against the wind. If you are holding on to it too close to the front, the drag from the back end will flip the airplane over with the nose coming straight back toward you. Too close to the back and the nose will blow directly back toward you. You will have the center of gravity when the airplane will stay balanced on your fingers.

Mark this spot with a pencil so you know where to hold the airplane every time you throw.

When you find your center of gravity, this is going to dramatically increase your ability to create a great paper airplane. This is so important if you want to make your airplane soar into the sky and much higher than everyone else's airplane.

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