I received these photos from my new friend Dinkar in India.
He introduced the Squirrel model airplane project to teachers who are in training.
All posts by Darcy
School project report
Here are some lovely pictures from Dinkar in India.
It was wonderful & amazing experience for us to see squirrel flying in
our school. Children enjoy it. Video shooting isn’t possible on mobile, so I will
send you video shortly. Here are some pictures for you. Tomorrow
children will make squirrels. What I say about squirrel is – “Simple
structure with high performance”. Have a good day. — Dinkar Narwade
Model airplane workshops in a school using an overhead
I was invited to help kids make some Squirrels at a school.
My contact Robert had an innovative idea of using an overhead projector and a camera so the kids could see the steps close up. This is a brilliant idea and is much better than the way I was doing it. I think with some refinement this could be the ultimate technique.
As you can see below, it was a large group!
Lubricating rubber for model airplanes
Rubber-power is a great way to power small planes. If you just use the elastic band as-is, it will work great. But if you want to get some really far out flights you can lubricate the rubber band.
There are a variety of materials that work for this. I have been giving it as prizes to kids and I have prepared another batch.
I think this is a great way to reward kids that attend model airplane workshops.
Balsa and other materials for model planes
Balsa is tricky business.
It varies in weight and structural characteristics. Also the wood can be warped or even brittle. Sometimes it’s so dense you can’t cut it. Sometimes it’s lighter than foam and if you bend it, it shatters like glass.
Balsa companies cut it with varying degrees of precision. They cut with different grain orientations.
I’m am exploring some other materials to be used in conjunction with balsa or to replace balsa.
They include paper, foam, depron, tissue, cedar and other woods. I’m looking at some plastics as well.
I’ll be sharing my adventures with materials here. Stay tuned!
