SHOE BOX GLIDER PROJECT:

Objective:

Produce a design that incorporates a shoebox as part of your glider.

Additionally your Shoebox Glider will have to meet the criteria and
constraints listed below. Your challenge is open-ended and involves a
variety of collaborative and creative problem solving efforts!

Instructional Objectives:

Students will research the dynamics and forces of flight.

Students will apply their understanding of flight to the design,
construction, and test flight of a shoebox based glider.
Students will collect measurements and calculate glide-slope
and aspect ratios.

Research Questions:

1. Name the forces experienced by a glider in flight?

2. What major design issues need to be considered for any flying

machine?

3. What forces affect all things that fly?

4. Can you name at least three careers in aviation?

5. What is a ratio?

6. What does a glide slope ratio indicate?

7. Which ratio indicates the best glide slope?

a. 8:4

b. 10:5

c. 4:1

8. Which glide slope ratio indicated that a glider never flew?

a. 1:2

b. 0:5
 c. 10:1

9. What does the aspect ratio measure?

10. Is there a relationship between glide slope and aspect ratios?

11. What is an airfoil?

Shoebox Glider Criteria:

a. The glider must move forward for at least 15 feet.

b. The glider must demonstrate an efficient positive glide slope ratio.

c. The glider must not break upon landing.

d. The gliders glide slope and aspect ratios must be determined.

e. The glider must have good creative design and use of materials.

Shoebox Glider Constraints:

a. The glider must include an intact shoebox in its design.

b. There are no material constraints.

Release Point:

The glider will be launched from the top of the stairs in the courtyard.

Research
The Glide Slope Ratio

Glide Slope is a number that indicates how well your designed shoebox
glider

flies through the air in terms of its forward distance vs. its drop in
altitude.

Glide Ratio = Horizontal Distance divided by the Change in Altitude.

Another way to think of this is to ask, how far did the glider travel
forward for

every foot it dropped in altitude?

For example: You released your Shoebox Glider from atop a 10-foot
high ladder.

Your glider traveled 50 feet before landing on the floor.

Horizontal Distance = 50 feet

Change in Altitude = 10 feet

Dividing Distance (50) by Altitude (10) = 5 The Glide Ratio is 5

50/10 = 5/1 = 5 The glider flew forward 5 feet for every 1-foot drop in
altitude.

Basics

Orville and Wilbur Wright built their airplanes over one hundred years
ago. After a lot of testing and experimentation, they made several
successful flights. By today's standards, their designs were simple, but
they discovered a lot about aircraft design and aerodynamics. Now you
have the chance to learn some of these same lessons for yourself. First,
let's look at the parts of a plane.

A full-size glider has four main parts:

 Fuselage (the body of the plane)

Wings

Control Surfaces (movable sections of the wing and

tail)

Landing Gear (usually just a single wheel)

For your project, your glider will likely only have the first two things- the fuselage
and the wings. You probably noticed that the above list does not include an engine.
A glider, by definition, has no engine. So what makes it fly? We'll get to that in just a
minute...

A full-size propeller plane has six main parts:

Fuselage

Wings
 Propeller

Engine

Control Surfaces

Landing Gear

So now let's get back to how airplanes fly. As you can probably guess, the way a
propeller airplane flies is a bit different than the way a glider flies. In both cases,
however, it's all about the forces! Four forces act on propeller airplanes: weight, lift,
drag, and thrust.

Image from NASA

On the other hand, only three forces act on a glider: weight, lift, and drag.
Image from NASA

What are the effects of each of these forces?

Weight: This force is caused by gravitational attraction

to the earth. Weight depends on the mass of the
airplane itself, plus its payload. What is a payload? It
includes things like passengers, luggage, and fuel.
Weight resists flight.

Lift: This force is created by the motion (velocity) of the

airplane through the air. Lift overcomes weight to make
the plane fly. Most of the lift is generated by the wings
through their design and angle. Air pressure also affects
lift. Bernoulli's Principle states that the fast moving air
is of lower density than slow moving air and has a lower
pressure. The difference in air speed (and thus air
pressure) above and below the wing produces lift.

Drag: As an airplane moves through the air, the air

opposes its motion, creating drag. This is also known as
air resistance. This force acts in the opposite direction
of the plane's flight. The shape and velocity of the plane
and the air around the plane affect drag. Drag resists
flight.

Thrust: This force is created by the engine and the

propellers. Thrust overcomes drag to make a powered
airplane fly. In a propeller plane, the propellers push
air backwards, making the plane move forward. Since
gliders have nothing to generate thrust, there is no
force to oppose drag.

Once a glider is launched, it will gradually slow down until it can no longer generate
enough lift to oppose its weight. A well-designed glider, however, can stay aloft for a
long period of time and fly great distances by taking advantage of lift and lessening
the effects of weight and drag. Propeller airplanes on the other hand can depend on
their propeller and engine- and the resulting thrust- to keep them aloft. One of their
main limits is their fuel supply, which powers the engine and propeller in the first
place! (It's also good for propeller planes to consider the effects of the other forces,
since this can make the propeller and engine work more efficiently.)

How can you use what you know about the forces acting on your plane to make it fly
better? You might want to consider the following:

Weight
 o Will a heavy plane or a light plane be more
effective?

o Consider that less weight means there is a

smaller force to oppose lift.

o But, too little weight might cause problems, too!

Center of gravity

o This is the theoretical point where the weight of

the plane is concentrated.

o What will happen if the center of gravity is too far

forward or too far back?

Aerodynamics & drag

o How can you make the shape of your plane and

its wings more aerodynamic?

o Which surface produces less friction: a smooth

surface or a rough surface?

Wing design

o The wing aspect ratio is the ratio of the wing's

span to its area.

o Long, thin wings (high wing aspect ratio) are

more efficient- they produce less drag compared
to the lift that they generate.

o Short, stubby wings (low wing aspect ratio) are

sturdier and more maneuverable.

o Which design is better in the plane that you'll be

building?