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Do it yourself

Superfast aircraft

15 minutes

You’ve probably made paper aircraft before. With the help of an elastic band, you can turn them into catapult aircraft. Which aircraft will fly the furthest?

Requirements

Steps

Step 1

Take a sheet of paper. Fold the paper in half, lengthwise, then unfold it again. Fold the upper right corner towards the edge of the fold. This will be a wing. Now, fold the upper left corner towards the edge of the fold. Fold the two wings once again towards the edge of the fold. Use sticky tape to stick the wings underneath by the belly.

Is your aircraft ready? Then make another one.

Step 2

Use the hole puncher to make a hole on the bottom, around 12 cm from the point. Fold the two wings again. That turns your paper aircraft into a real model fighter jet.

Step 3

With one of the aircraft, pull the elastic band through the hole and thread it through its own loop. This is the catapult aircraft.

Step 4

Stand at a fixed point and launch the aircraft, one after the other.

Catapult aircraft: Stick your pencil through the elastic band. The elastic band should be around the top of the pencil. Pull the pencil forwards and the aircraft backwards. Release the aircraft!

Normal aircraft: Throw the aircraft forwards using your hand.

Which aircraft flies the furthest?

Step

What did you discover

The catapult aircraft will probably fly the furthest. That’s because when you launched it, you used the energy stored in the taut elastic band. If you stretch the elastic band and then release it, the energy stored in it is converted into kinetic energy.

Aircraft, including fighter jets, need a runway to take off. This is because they first have to get up to speed. That’s why runways are usually very long.

Aircraft carriers, on the other hand, have very short runways. That’s why fighter jets taking off from these ships are launched using a catapult system. This gives them the required velocity, allowing them to take off quickly with no need for a long run-up.

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