PAPER HELICOPTERS

To give us a little understanding of how a helicopter’s rotor blades work, we made paper helicopters using this simple template.

                       

You fold on the dotted lines. A & B are the rotor blades and one is folded towards you and the other away from you. C overlaps D and is secured with a paper clip.

We worked in pairs, one throwing their helicopter, the other timing the flight. We were allowed to make one adjustment for subsequent flights, things like:

* using a different sized template
* adding more paperclips to the load
* folding the blades differently
* having more than two rotating blades

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We observed each flight carefully and found out whether our blades turned in a clockwise or anti-clockwise direction, how fast or slow the blades spun and whether the size influenced the flight. The air was pushing on both blades but because they were folded in different directions, it caused the copter to spin.

                              
          

          
          
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RYAH’S FIRST FLIGHT

What I did first was give it a little push and then the blades started to spin.

My partner Oliver timed my helicopter and the time was 1.75 secs.

It was awesome. My teacher is the best about Science.

CALEB’S FIRST FLIGHT

My helicopter was spinning with the wind and went very, very far to the left

and it was spinning anti-clockwise. It looked like the blades were slicing through

the air. (3.56secs)

EMILY’S SECOND FLIGHT

The thing I changed was the fold. I changed by folding the blades the other

way. I think this flight was better. My blades spun anti-clockwise. (3.64secs)

SETH’S SECOND FLIGHT

I changed it by putting another paperclip on and it went quicker because

of the weight. But to me it looked slower, even though it went well. (2.31secs)

CHARLI’S THIRD FLIGHT

My change was, I tried my little helicopter without the paperclips.

It was a really good flight but it landed in water. (4.00secs)

KIRSTY’S THIRD FLIGHT

My helicopter was the little one and it was the winner because it stayed

in the air for longer, which is just like a real helicopter. Its blades went faster

because the littler, the faster and it went sideways too. (3.09secs)