500 Harris St UltimoPO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238Australia

Tel: 02 6217 0111http://play.powerhousemuseum.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

THE CRAFT TABLE

Make & Do Activity Kit

Aerofoil wingPlanes have wings for the same reason birds do–to help it fly. The shape of a planes wing is important. Test the powers of aerodynamics in this fun activity.

Time: 30 minutesDifficulty:Hint: It is important not to crease thepaper as you construct your aerofoil wing.

Adult step please: Carefully poke a hole using scissors through both black dots on your template sheet large enough to push a straw through.

1.

Bend the template paper over till the end meets the black line. Don’t crease. Stick into position with tape along the line.

2.

Pass the straw through both holes as shown.

3.

Place a 4cm long piece of tape as shown and fold it over to form a flag shape. Trim straw at the tape. Repeat on other end.

4.

Thread string through the straw and tie beads to each end.

5.

To fly your aerofoil, hold beads vertically and taut as shown. Make sure the curve of the wing is on top and pointed edge of foil to the front. Then run!

6.

• Template• Straw• String

• 2 beads• Sticky tape• coloured A4 paper

What you will need:

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500 Harris St UltimoPO Box K346 Haymarket NSW 1238Australia

Tel: 02 6217 0111http://play.powerhousemuseum.com

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

THE CRAFT TABLE

Make & Do Activity Kit

What’s going on?Planes have wings for the same reason that birds do - to help them fly.

Wings can be made from all sorts of materials; wood, metal, feathers, cloth....and paper.

To see how wings work, take a piece of paper, hold it flat and blow hard over the top. The paper rises, but only if we keep on blowing on it. When we stop, it comes back down again.

This gives us a clue about how birds and aeroplanes fly. It is caused simply by the air rushing over the wings. and it is powerful enough to lift anything from a little sparrowe to a giant Jumbo jet.

So wind helps the plane to go up, but the shape of the wing is important too. a boomerang is curved on the top and flat on the bottom and the air goes faster over the top than underneath. It is not the faster air at the top that sucks up the wing, it is the slow air underneath that is actually pushing it up!

Other man-made and natural things you can find that have this shape for flight are helicopter blades, frisbees, sycamore’s seeds, hang-gliders and racing cars. Racing cars have up-side down wings that work to push the car down instead, helping the tyres grip the road.

Aerofoil wing

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Notes drawings & observations