| Description |
For the past year students from four high schools in Hampton,
Virginia, have spent much of their free time working towards a common goal
- setting the Guinness record for the world's largest paper airplane.
Doctor Ferdinand Grosveld, a Lockheed supervisor working at NASA's Langley
Research Center, came up with the idea as a way to get students excited
about engineering and science. As chairman of the local chapter of the
American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics, Doctor Grosveld
approached four accomplished engineers, retired from NASA, to serve as
advisors in the project. One was Collier Trophy winner Dick Whitcomb. They
taught the students aeronautical concepts like lift and drag, then let
them come up with their own original designs. They were fast learners,
according to Jim Penniman. Weeks later a guy was able to tell me what
aspect ratio and how to calculate it when it was only mentioned a time or
two so I felt like that he learned well. Fellow advisor, Bill Reed, was
equally pleased. The real purpose is a lasting one, and that's to
stimulate these young minds, and I see it happening. The record they were
trying to break was a sixteen-foot wingspan flying a minimum of fifty
feet. Paper and adhesives were the only materials allowed in construction.
The greatest challenge was keeping the planes from collapsing under their
own weight, an obstacle overcome with an innovative tube rolling technique
devised with the help of Hewitt Phillips. Fly-offs in the Hampton City
School's gym were used to evaluate student concepts. Although this
eighteen-foot version seemed capable of breaking the record, the students
decided to work towards an even larger model in case someone established a
new mark before their attempt. As part of the project, the students
visited NASA Langley Facilities, including this subsonic wind tunnel where
they participated in an aerodynamic study involving a scale model of a
transportation aircraft. Thanks to Virginia Soaring, they were also able
to experience firsthand the forces on a giant paperlike plane, taking
rides in a glider piloted by NASA contract engineer, Mahmed Tekalu.
Finally, the day the students had been gearing up for came. In a hangar at
NASA Langley they hoisted their twenty-four foot model onto a platform as
specified in contest regulations. With record officials and numerous
supporters on hand, senior Kevin Kelly let the plane fly. It had to go
fifty feet to break the record. It traveled over twice that far, and the
students weren't done yet. With Will Perry doing the honors, they broke
their own record using this twenty-eight foot version. Then as a grand
finale, they launched a thirty-foot craft, achieving yet another new
milestone - one hundred fourteen feet, nine inches. Kevin Kelly summed up
the emotions of the day. It's been a long project, and to come down and be
able to break the record and the plane fly as well as it did, I'm really
happy. It's been a great experience. The record-setting craft will now be
displayed in Virginia's new Air and Space Center alongside other historic
planes signifying the dedicated teamwork and learning experience of all
who participated. It's maybe like the Olympic Games. You know,
participating is more important than being first. |