How design modifications affect paper airplane flight distance and performance

¶ … Airplanes

Physics Experiment

The study carries out an airplane experiment that investigates the concepts of lift, drag, and design using the paper airplane experiment. The report used a "standard" paper airplane as a baseline, and modified the plane in different forms to test whether the performance and flight distance of the plane are faulty or improved. Additionally, the report includes the scientific questions, the context of the questions, an explanation of why the question is important/interesting/relevant to the outside world. The report also discusses the variables, materials, and methods used for the experiment. More importantly, the study explains the specific steps used to carry out the experiment, and the guideline that may be employed to achieve replication by a third party wishing to repeat the same experiments.

Scientific Question

The general scientific question explored is as follows:

How a "conventional" airplane with no modifications for drag, structure or shape is compared to other planes modified in a single and specific way?

The difference that needs to be investigate is:

How far the plane flies based on the variable that changes for each paper airplane designed and flied?

The questions are very important because the structure of the paper airplane can be translated into simple and albeit crude experiment, which can be easily correlated to the way the real-world airplanes are constructed. Indeed, large jumbo jets such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner is very big when it comes to size and weight yet it flies similar to the way a bird flies using powerful engines, wings and tails to lift and balance itself in the air. The aforementioned Dreamliner is built with lightweight materials, however, it is still extremely heavy when it starts to takeoff because of its weight of roughly half a million pounds and a maximum landing weight of nearly four hundred thousand pounds. However, the plane is able to fly at nearly the speed of sound (Mach 1) using between 556 and 600 miles per hour (Modern Airliners, 2015).

The study attempts to reveal that while the Dreamliner is a huge, however, it can be maneuvered in a way that seems defying gravity, which is one of the concept of physics. In the same manner, it is clear during the experiments that very minor tweaks in the design and structure of a paper airplane has a demonstrable and obvious effect on how far the paper airplane flies. Further, the tips and tricks used to modify the paper airplanes were taken straight from the same lessons learned when constructing the modern airplanes and back to the original Wright Brothers airplanes.

Furthermore, the airline industry and aviation industry have obvious and massive implications regarding many aspects of life including commerce, civilian transportation, military transportation, military warfare, surveillance and reconnaissance. Indeed, the concepts of flight, drag, lift and travel affect all people globally in some degree. For example, airline industry affects how fast a FedEx package is delivered to customer and how long it takes for a consumer to fly from Los Angeles to New York. The industry also had a direct implication on the attack of the World Trade Center in 2001. The implications of airplanes and what they do (and how they are wielded) are present everywhere and easy to observe for anyone paying attention (Nagy, 2015; Benson, 2015).

Variables and Constants

Independent Variable:

Weight of Paper Airplane

Dependent Variable:

Distance (cm) of flight

Constant Variables:

Type of paper used for the experiment

Design of plane,

How to throw the plane, and?

Where they author throws the plane.

Other Control Parameters

The overall environment for the plane flying tests was obviously well-controlled. The control variables that were in place for all plane flights were as follows:

All flights done in a rectangular shaped room measuring 15 feet by 40 feet.

All flights done the "long" way in the room (so as to allow up to 40 feet of air travel, rather than just 15 feet)

Room was carpeted ... rather than tile or hardwood. Thus, the planes would not "slide" upon landing. Rather, they stopped moving immediately upon hitting the ground. The room was selected precisely for that reason.

The room had a height of eight feet and four inches (from floor to ceiling)

Walls and ceiling in the room were all conventional dry-wall. All surfaces on the ceiling and walls were smooth (i.e. no popcorn ceilings or textured look)

Room consistently held at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. This was set via thermostat and verified via thermometer at the point of flight. However, blower/vents were turned OFF for all flights so as to not influence the flight path/distance. When the temperature rose, flights were paused until the air conditioning brought the temperature back to 70 degrees.

Absolutely no objects on the floor in the path of flight (e.g. furniture, etc.) ... just bare carpet. Carpet was semi-shag ... about a half an inch to an inch in length on each "hair" of the carpet.

All flights conducted with back facing one of the shorter (15 feet) walls with the entire 40-foot length of the room being the overall field of flight.

All planes were made with the same brand, size and shape of copier paper. Specifically, the paper was Office Depot "Copy & Print" standard printer paper. Similarly, the paper was 8.5x11 inch ... standard letter size and white in color. Papers were all completely dry and were not modified in any way unless specifically noted in this report. Thus, the weight of each paper is identical minus anything being added to the plane.

Movement of the author of this report was restricted to the arm motion to launch the plane ... absolutely nothing else. Absolutely no movement from the author after launching the plane until it lands and is still.

Exact same throwing motion used for ALL launches. Moderate and smooth release of each plane just before the hand starts to go downward. Right hand used for all flights (dominant hand for the researcher)

All flights done with the plane upright and level. In other words, the fold that faces down was always precisely perpendicular to the floor

Nose of plane always completely level upon launch. No upward or downward tilt of the nose/tail.

The Different Planes Used

1) Folded paper with no modifications (control)

2) The control plane with the edges of the plane curled up in a gentle "C" shape

3) The control airplane but with the center fold of the plane stapled so that the top surface of the plane is one flush surface (rather than being a "V" shape)

4) The control plane with the back edge of the top of the wings folded up (one half an inch worth of paper comprises the fold). In other words, like the spoiler on a car.

Hypotheses

1) The control airplane will perform decently but will absolutely not be the best of the bunch.

2) The plane with the folded up tail will be the poorest of the bunch.

3) The furthest flying planes will be the curled wing plane and the stapled plane.

4) The curled wing plane will do better since it will get more lift due to wing shape but is not weighed down by the staples

5) Combining more than one of the above could lead to an even better performance (not tested in this experiment,) (Scholastic, 2015).

Materials/Facilities Needed/Used

Four sheets of 8.5x11 standard letter copier paper. Office Depot "Copy & Print" was used for this experiment any similar brand/stock should work.

A thermometer

A carpeted room that is at least 10-15 feet in length (preferably longer)

A room with a useable thermostat

A measuring tape ... preferably 25' in length or more

A stapler

Standard staples

A wastebasket to dispose of the airplanes when everything is done

A camera of some sort if photo documentation is wanted

A pen (to record results)

A pad of paper (to record results)

Room for Replication

This experiment would be extremely easy to repeat and for a number of reasons and they are as follows:

1) Finding a carpeted hallway or room like the one used for this experiment would not be very hard.

2) Being able to control the temperature in such a room would be fairly easy with a thermometer and a workable thermostat.

3) The costs of the materials (paper, staples, and other materials) are extremely cheap and can be found in many offices or homes

4) The procedure used to create the "control" plane is available online for anyone to see and study. It is not behind a "pay wall" or a login.

Analysis and Results

The study uses the statistical technique to analyze the results. The results of all the paper airplanes clip and distance of the flight are compared using the tabular and graphical form as being revealed in the Table 1 and Fig 2.

Table 1: Paper airplane and Flight Distance (ft.)

Paper Airplane

Distance of Flight (ft.)

Performances

Curl Wing plane

22 ft.

Best

Plane with Staples

18 ft.9 inches

Second to the Best

Controlled Airplane

16 ft. 2 inches

Better

Folded Tail Airplane

12 ft.1 inches

Worst

Fig 2: Distance of Fight (ft.) To smooth out outliers, each plane was tossed five times. As predicted, the plane with the folded tail performed the worst with an average flight distance of twelve feet, one inch. The control airplane was second to last with an average of sixteen feet and two inches. Second place in terms of distance went to the plane with the staples, coming in at eighteen feet, nine inches. Finally, the curl-wing plane was the best with an average of twenty-two feet. The results are aligned with the actual hypotheses almost perfectly. The results correlated almost precisely to what was guessed. The only gray area was whether the curl-wing or the stapled plane would win but it makes sense that the lighter plane with wings was better designed for lift did the best. Additional questions and research would include the last hypothesis mentioned before with the combinations of the variations from the control area. However, the author wanted to keep things as "apples to apples" as possible while still changing a variable. In other words, the curled wing was the variable that led to the greatest gain.

Other things that could be researched include the stock weight of the paper, the temperature in the room, different models of airplanes and so forth. There were no real discrepancies found. There were a few "mis-throws" where the release point was not proper. Those releases were disregarded and only "good" throws where the speed of the arm and the release point were both at the proper levels. This experiment was a very basic one but also very informative at the same time.

Reference

Benson, E. (2015). Planes, The. NYMag.com. Retrieved 20 August 2015, from http://nymag.com/news/9-11/10th-anniversary/planes/

Instructables. (2015). How to Make an Easy Paper Airplane. Instructables.com. Retrieved 19 August 2015, from http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-an-Easy-Paper-Airplane/

Modern Airliners. (2015). Boeing 787 Dreamliner Specs - Modern Airliners. Modernairliners.com. Retrieved 19 August 2015, from http://modernairliners.com/boeing-787-dreamliner/boeing-787-dreamliner-specs

Nagy, A. (2015). The 19 Most Badass Spy Planes. Gizmodo. Retrieved 20 August 2015, from http://gizmodo.com/5960077/the-19-most-badass-spy-planes-dfp_pp_ab=on&dfp_desktop_three=off&utm_expid=66866090-43.E9Bjfd6NTuSlXJewu2e_Ig.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

Scholastic. (2015). What Makes Paper Airplanes Fly? -- Scholastic.com. Scholastic Teachers. Retrieved 19 August 2015, from http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/what-makes-paper-airplanes-fly