Machan School

Greetings from Phoenix Arizona!
We are Ms. Turner's fourth and fifth grade class from Machan School.
We tested our planes last Friday afternoon, at 1:30 pm. It was a warm 80 degree day in Arizona.

Here is our procedure:
Standing on the school bleachers, from a height of one meter, we held the plane from the middle of the fuselage, and launched it with our arms. Not all of us seemed to use the same force with our arms.

Here are our results:
Plane#1 --- 3 meters, 25 cm. It did a flutter and then stalled.
Plane #2 --- It flew straight and fluttered to the ground. It flew 350 cm.
Plane #3 --- It flew 300 cm. It went up, stopped and then did a nose dive.
Plane #4 ----It flew 300 cm. It did a loop backward, and then flew straight and fell.
Plane #5 --- It flew 323 cm. It flew straight and went down fast in a nose dive.
Plane #6 --- It flew 416 cm. It flew straight and then turned back and flew towards us.
Plane #7 --- It flew 330 cm. It flew straight and did a nose dive down.
Plane #8 --- It flew 402 cm. It flew straight and did a nose dive down.
Plane #9 --- It flew 390 cm. It flew straight and gradually came down.
Plane #10 -- It flew 283 cm. It looped backwards and then did a nose dive.
Plane #11 - It flew 500 cm. It flew straight, then looped back and then did a nose dive down.
Plane #12 - It flew 300 cm. It flew to the right, stalled and then fell.
Plane #13 - It flew 200 cm. It curved back a lot and then fell to the ground.

These are some things that we've concluded now that we have tested the planes.
We should change the wings. They could be longer, not square, and maybe make more triangle-shaped wings.
We could add elevators to the back of the horizontal stabilizer, in order to add more lift.
We should make the wings get narrower as they go out. We also might make the wings thicker, and possibly curved to provide more lift.
It felt like the front of the plane was too heavy. We should make the front the same as the back, the same thickness. We could add flaps on the back of the wing and glue the wings at an angle in an upward direction.
We could also change the shape of the nose of the plane- make it more slanted, like a real plane.
We plan to look through books and see what shape of wings there are, and to look on the internet too.

Here are some questions we have:
1. We want to know if triangle-shaped wings are a good idea?
2. Should we attach any weight to the front of the plane?
3. Should we attach any weight to the back of the plane?
4. Can we use flaps on the wings, one down and one up, to make the plane turn?
5. How can we make the plane stronger to avoid breaking?
6. Should we put weight in the middle to make the sides more even?
7. Should we make the wings thicker?
8. Can we use elevators on the airplane?
9. Can we make the wings angled up like in a "v" shape?

Thanks! We would love to hear all of your ideas.
Ms. Turner's class