Who is Amy Aviation?

Amy is mad about everything aeronautical (that means everything to do with planes)!

She knows everything there is to know about planes and loves to sharing her knowledge – when she’s not busy flying around.

Watch this video about what makes a good paper plane…

After that you should have a good idea about what what makes planes work and how to use that knowledge to make a super-duper paper plane!

So a good paper plane is aerodynamic, what is that?

If something is aerodynamic it means that it moves well through the air.

A good paper plane needs to move through the air well and so it needs to be aerodynamic.

This is the same with real planes too!

So how do I make my paper plane aerodynamic?

It’s all about shape.

You want something that has a small surface area in contact with the air as it moves through the air.

As we saw in the video, Amy throw both a plain sheet of paper and a screwed up paper ball. The sheet of paper took ages to move through the air becuase it had a lot of it’s surface in contact wth the air which slowed it down.

The screwed up ball moved much faster as it had less surface area in contact with the air and so it could move much quicker!

When you make your paper plane, think about how much surface will touch the air as it moves through it – this is what aeroplane engineers do when they design real planes!

Why does a plane need wings?

A plane needs wings to keep it in the air!

Wings give a plane something called ‘lift’ which is the force that lifts the plane up in the air.

How does a wing give a plane lift?

It’s all to do with the air that moves around the wing.

The wings curved shape makes the air on top move fast over the wing and the air on the bottom move slowly under the wing.

This makes the pressure above the wing low and below the wing high.

This makes pushes the plane up and gives it lift!

You want this to happen with your paper plane too, this is why you need wings on your paper plane.

How do you get the air move over the wings like that?

You need something called thrust.

Thrust is the forward motion that a plane has the moves it through the air.

The plane moving through the air is what makes the air move over the wings. It’s a little bit like when you run really fast, you can feel the air moving past your face more and more the faster you run.

How do I give my plane thrust?

With real planes the engines move the plane forward and provide the thrust.

With your paper plane your hand gives it thrust when you throw it, so make sure you throw it really well!

Activity: Make a paper plane using everything you’ve learnt!

You’ve learnt loads about how planes work, use what you’ve learnt to make the best paper plane you can!

Try out different designs until you find the best one.

Why not decorate your plane as well?

If you need some help then you can download these templates for some different planes here…

Typhoon template

Rapier template

Dart template

Comet template

Click here for the next mission all about the wings of a plane!