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Introductory Essay

Paper Gliders vs. Paper Jets


By ??????????? period 4

This essay is about gliders. Gliders are a type plane with no engine. How do they stay in the
air? Unlike most planes that fly by thrust, gliders use gravity. By falling through the air, it makes the
air flow over the wings. The wings have a special shape so it can have lift. You might think that a
glider is an old fashion airplane, but thats not true. If they were then we wouldnt use them any
more. In fact, theyre come in many shapes and sizes like sailplanes, hang gliders, paper airplanes
and even the space shuttle is a glider.

Forces of a powered plane compared to a glider. Source: How Gliders Fly, Nottingham University Gliding Club.

First, lift is upward force of air against the wings. Second, thrust is what pushes or pulls the
plane forward. Then, drag is the force of the air that that slows down the plane. Also, the weight is
the force of gravity that brings the plane down to the ground. Finally, when thrust is more than drag
and when lift is more than weight the plane can fly.
NASA says on a web page called Three Forces on a Glider, In order for a glider to fly, it
must generate lift to oppose its weight. To generate lift, a glider must move through the air. But the
motion of a glider through the air also generates drag. In a powered aircraft, the thrust from the

engine opposes drag. But a glider has no engine to generate thrust. With the drag unopposed, a glider
quickly slows down until it can no longer generate enough lift to oppose the weight.
Chris Emerson of the Nottingham University Gliding Club said, There are 2 wings that
generate lift and the same controls to move the plane in the air. The only difference is that because
the glider has no engine, some of the lift from the wings is used to propel it forwards instead. The
glider points downwards slightly, which angles the lift from the wings forwards a bit. The further the
nose points down, the more lift acts in a forwards direction, and the faster (and steeper) the glider
flies. The glider flies just as well on a still wind day as in a strong breeze, and can even fly in rain
and snow (although the performance is reduced - we won't normally launch while it is raining).
A glider has no engine to make thrust, so in order to fly it glides. NASA in Three Forces on a
Glider says that a glider trades altitude for velocity. It trades the potential energy difference from a
higher altitude to a lower altitude to produce kinetic energy, which means velocity. Gliders are
always descending relative to the air in which they are flying.
Gliders are always falling in the air, but sometimes the air is going up faster than the glider
can go down. These are called updrafts and thermals. Whitewings on page 19 says they can be found
over city streets, desserts and plains with shorts grasses.

The forces that act on a glider in flight. Source: Glider Flying Handbook, 2003.

Many gliders use a special shape of wing called an airfoil to help give them lift. The FAA
Glider Flying Handbook talks about airfoils. Airfoil is the term used for surfaces on a glider that
produce lift. Airfoils that have a different curvature on the bottom of the wing when compared to
the top surface are asymmetrical. The term camber refers to the curvature of a wing when looking at
a cross section. The term leading edge is used to describe the forward edge of the airfoil. The rear
edge of the airfoil is called the trailing edge. The chord line is an imaginary straight line drawn from
the leading edge to the trailing edge.
Sport Pilot, Gliding web page says Glider wings have very high aspect ratios -- their span is
very long compared to their width. This is because drag created during the production of lift (known
as induced drag) can account for a significant portion of the total drag on a glider. One way to
increase the efficiency of a wing is to increase its aspect ratio. Glider wings are very long and thin,
which makes them efficient. They produce less drag for the amount of lift they generate.

The aspect ratio of a wing is the wingspan squared divided by the area of the wing. The glider has a much larger aspect
ratio than a conventional plane. Source: Sport Pilot, Gliding.

The FAA Glider Flying Handbook talks about how the shape of the wings makes the glider fly better
or worse. The shape, or planform, of the wings also has an effect on the amount of lift and drag

produced. The four most common wing planforms used on gliders are elliptical, rectangular, tapered,
and swept-forward wing.

Elliptical wings produce the least amount of induced drag for a given wing area. This design of
wing is difficult to manufacture. The elliptical wing is more efficient in terms of L/D, but stall
characteristics are not as good as the rectangular wing.

The rectangular wing is similar in efficiency to the elliptical wing but is much easier to build.
Rectangular wings have very gentle stall characteristics with a warning buffet prior to stall and are
easier to manufacture than elliptical wings. One drawback to this wing design is that rectangular
wings create more induced drag than an elliptical wing of comparable size.

The tapered wing is the planform found most frequently on gliders. Assuming equal wing area, the
tapered wing produces less drag than the rectangular wing because there is less area at the tip of the
tapered wing. If speed is the prime consideration, a tapered wing is more desirable than a rectangular
wing, but a tapered wing with no twist has undesirable stall characteristics.

Swept-forward wings are used to allow for the lifting area of the wing to move forward while
keeping the mounting point aft of the cockpit. This wing configuration is used on some tandem twoseat gliders to allow for a small change in center of gravity with the rear seat occupied or while
flying solo.

Planform refers to the shape of the gliders wing when viewed from above or below. There are advantages and
disadvantages to each planform design. Source: Glider Flying Handbook, 2003.

Another wing shape is the swept back, or swept aft, shape. This is often used on supersonic
jets. The shape helps them fly better at high speeds. Whitewings paper airplane kit has paper
airplanes that have swept back wings. According to NASA, Area, wings come in many different
planforms: rectangular, triangular, trapezoidal, or even elliptical. To determine the lift and drag that a
wing generates, you must be able to calculate the area of any of these shapes.
If you stick your hand out the car window you will notice that when your hand is flat it kind
of goes up, but turn it so your hand so your palm faces the wind it flies back. This is an example of
angle of attack. The angle of attack, says Newton's Apple is the orientation of the wing as it faces
into the wind. Increasing the angle of attack means increasing the amount of air hitting directly on
the bottom, which gives the wing more lift. Of course, if you make the angle of attack too big, the
wing will blow backwards, and the plane will come crashing down!" The angle of attack is

important because to gliders because if the angle to too high the glider will stall and fall until it has a
better angle. This is very important for paper airplanes.

Measuring the Angle of Attack. Source: How Gliders Stay in the Air.

How are paper airplanes different than other gliders? First, paper airplanes are made out of
paper not normal glider material like plastic and metal. This makes them heavier than paper
airplanes, so real gliders need proportionately larger wings to get lift. Also, paper is thin, so the
paper gliders have thin bodies and wings and less drag, but there is drag on the paper gliders because
of the layers of paper and loose corners sticking out. Because Whitewings look like normal
airplanes, you can camber the wings like normal planes by curving them.
My hypothesis is that straight winged paper gliders are going to stay in air the longest,
compared to the swept wing jet gliders.

Experiment
Build Whitewing paper airplanes following instructions provided in models. See
appendix.
In a large room with high ceilings, launch the airplanes.
Hold the catapult stick at eye level. Measure the distance from the ground to the
catapult.
This was about 150 cm from the ground. Pull back the nose of the airplane right
next to your front shoulder. Measure the distance from the stick to the nose of the
glider and the distance to the ground. This was about 70 cm of pull and about 134
cm from the ground. Calculate the angle. This means that the launch angle was
about 21 degrees upward. We made these measurements five times and averaged
the distances.
Launch a plane by counting Ready-Set-Go. Let go on Go. Two timers start
their stop watches on Go and stop the watch when they hear the plane hit the
ground. Record both times and average them later. If one timer messes up, use the
one good time to record the time in the air.
Repeat the launch steps 5 times for each of the 6 airplanes.
Take pictures for display board.

Results

Category
Jet
Jet
Jet
Glider
Glider
Glider

Name
F-4 Phantom
F-15 Eagle
F-22
Racer 533
Sparrowhawk
Racer 532
Dragonfly
Tri-liner 704

ID Number
Airplane 1
Airplane 2
Airplane 3

Time in air (Seconds)


Trial 3
Trial 4
Trial 5
0.93
0.83
1.81
1.63
1.83
1.56
1.47
2.06
1.26

Trial 1
2.24
1.58
1.08

Trial 2
1.87
0.93
1.19

Average
1.53
1.50
1.41

Airplane 4

1.26

2.14

1.75

2.21

2.33

1.93

Airplane 5
Airplane 6

1.18
1.68

1.93
2.13

0.99
1.10

2.41
2.30

3.48
2.76

2.00
1.99

Overall average of jets: 1.43 seconds


Overall average of gliders: 1.97 seconds

Discussion
The Jets averaged 1.53, 1.50 and 1.41 seconds and Gliders averaged 1.93, 2.00 and 1.99
seconds. The combined category average Jets was 1.48 seconds and Gliders was 1.97 seconds. This
shows that gliders stays in the air longer than the jets.

This is almost exactly what I expected to happen. According to my research, straight wings
have a high aspect ratio and make more lift then swept wings. I wanted to see if this would happen
with paper airplanes and I had the same results.

I tried to prevent timing errors by having two people on stop watches. The paper air planes
would bend when they crashed into the ground so I had to straighten them out after each test.
Airplane number 1 would hit the stick so I had to launch it differently by pointing the catapult stick.
I had some interference like basketball goals and roof structures. In order to measure the distance I
need to launch, I had to keep the catapult stick at eye level and the nose of the plane at my shoulder.
This is an easy way to launch but not precise. It was hard to fly the paper airplanes because the glue
wasnt distributed right.

Next time, I would do this experiment is to read the instruction more carefully so I can make
less building errors on the airplanes. Whitewings teaches on page 26, It is very important to
decrease the air drag by slimming the fuselage or by omitting the parts that jut out. I would turn the
catapult stick into more of a crossbow, so I dont have interference from the stick.

According to NASA, Area, To determine the lift and drag that a wing generates, you must
be able to calculate the area of any of these shapes. This skill is taught in middle school and used
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every day by design engineers. The area is the two-dimensional amount of space that an object
occupies. Area is measured along the surface of an object and has dimensions of length squared; for
example, square feet of material, or centimeters squared. What I could do next time is measure the
distance the airplane goes. I could measure or calculate wing area and its lift and drag to predict
which gliders would be the best flyers.

Many websites, like NASA, Area, looked at the glide ratio or lift to drag ratio. I could
measure the glide ratio for each glider. And move the center or gravity around and change the angle
of attack to change how each glider flies.

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Conclusion
My conclusion is that if we didnt have any knowledge of lift, thrust, drag, etc., travel would be hard.
My hypothesis was that strait wing gliders stayed in the longer then the slant wing jets. My
hypothesis was correct because slant wings are made so you can go faster and the strait wings are
made to stay in the air longer. This goes to prove that the shape of the wing matters

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Bibliography
Chris Emerson, How Gliders Fly, Nottingham University Gliding Club,
http://www.nugc.net/gliding/how-gliders-fly/, 2009
Federal Aviation Administration, Glider Flying Handbook, 2003.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/17691046/FAAH808313-Glider-Flying-Handbook#
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Welcome to the Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics,
Tom Benson, Editor.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/bga.html, Apr 23 2009
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Three Forces on a Glider, Tom Benson, Editor.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/glider.html, Jul 11 2008
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Four Forces on an Airplane, Tom Benson, Editor.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/forces.html, Jul 11 2008
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Area, Tom Benson, Editor.
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/area.html, Apr 23 2009
Newtons Apple, How Gliders Stay in the Air
http://www.mansfieldct.org/schools/MMS/staff/hand/flightglider.htm, 1991
Sport Pilot web site, Gliding
http://www.esparacing.com/sport_pilot/the%20glider1.htm, 2009
Whitewings: Assembly Instructions, Fight Instructions, Introduction to Paper Plane Design, 1992.

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Abstract
The purpose of this experiment was to see which stayed in the air longest if it was the paper
gliders or the paper jets. We shot off 6 different model paper airplanes three jets shaped and three
gliders shaped 5 times each. We timed to see how long it would take for the paper airplanes to the
ground. The average time for the jets was 1.53 1.50 and 1.41 seconds and the average of the three
was 1.43 seconds. The average time for the gliders was 1.93 2.00 and 1.99 seconds the total of the
three was 1.97 seconds. My conclusion is that gliders stay in the air longer then jets.

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