George has sent in this great video of a Squirrel. He also sent a collection of pictures of some cool new designs that were inspired by the Squirrel design. (Coming soon).
Category Archives: Gallery
Best way to make a propeller for a model airplane!
At the ScienceToyMaker Website run by Slater Harrison there is a great set of instructions for building a propeller for your Squirrel or any other small project.
It so happens to be a Squirrel in his pictures.
Model Airplane Report
This was sent in by Chuck Young.
Professor Emeritus (Geophysical Engineering)
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Michigan
Technological University Houghton, MI 49931 USA
Ken Fisher (about 83 years old!) working with students
Craig Kimmer working with students
Teacher Deb Sage and students
dramatic launch in auditorium
moment of release in auditorium
dramatic followthrough/victory dance
in flight in the auditorium
Model airplane experimentation in BC
Subject: My pet Squirrel
Hi:
I thought you’d get a kick of of my rendition of your interesting plane. This one is 10 grams, and has a 12 in. wingspan with a 2 in. chord. The only prop I had on hand was a 9 in. hand carved model, and it is way too much for this little plane. It was hilarious to see the results of a too-big prop. After about 200 winds, I let ‘er rip. The plane rocketed up about 20 ft. and began doing a twirling tail dance. The prop was obviously turning the plane. A small(about
5 in.) prop is forthcoming, as is a 28 in. wingspan model, currently on the building board. Thanks for giving me an enjoyable few hours away from the building of my unlimited rubber job.
Cheers
George Clarke
Squirrels appear in another school
Here’s some information I got from Victor I. Smedstad:
Got Squirrel from the Internet a month or so ago. I have been trying to build model airplanes since about 1941 with a nickel or dime Comet Curtis Robin. Most of my so called scale attempts flew like rocks, so much of what I have built has been flyers. For the past 7 years I have been volunteering three days a week at an elementary school in Bremerton, Washington, adjoining the Naval Base. I wanted to work on flying models with kids, but until Squirrel, they all required Xacto or razor blades and that meant risk of injury which could only be minimized with one adult to one kid, a ratio I could not come even close to. So no building.
Then Squirrel!!
After my third Squirrel, I made some modifications, none of which modified the basic design. A fifth grade teacher was willing to work with me and I found that most shoe boxes were 11 inches or more in width, but few were as much as 12 inches in width. So the first modification was to reduce the wing span to 11 inches.
Because time was a problem, and fifth graders are not too good at measuring, I made a Sharpie mark at the middle of the wing leading and trailing edges, and at the middle of the horizontal stab LE and at the middle of two 2inch ribs for the end ribs.
In addition I redrew the instructions as plans on my $10 CAD program. Found out later that fifth graders have difficulty dealing with plans, but could do what they were told to do.
I tried it out first on a fourth grader, just one. As tying the tooth pick on with thread was more that kids could do, I eliminated the thread and added a 3/8 inch X 3/16 piece to butt up against the tooth pick.
I then got a group of five kids who were willing to stay after school and used two sessions to make sure the white glue had time to dry thoroughly.
They then acted as classroom experts when we then had the remaining 20 kids do the Squirrel.
Attachments: First, a shot of the classroom: Flegel class 00. Because there was no way we could get 25 kids flying squirrels in the gym, we flew outside. Flegel class 06. And all 25 flew: Flegel class 17.
I am impressed as were the kids.
Victor I. Smedstad
