Shoebox Glider Challenge - Chillicothe High School Entry  
Partners in Flight
Shoebox Glider Design Challenge

 
The Glider Research Building Finished Product Calculations

The Glider



The three of us - John, Miguel, and Eric stand with our glider.
Flight Videos
These four video clips show our glider's best flight first (graphed in calculations section) and then three others that were not as successful. The clips show that our glider was launched at a consistant height, but the angle sometimes varied causing the glider to stall.

   -Research



 

http://www.allstar.fiu.edu/aero/Wing31.htm
Airfoil Shapes

Wing

Tail

We researched sailplane airfoil shapes and printed one as a template for our wings.

   -Building



 
Materials Tools

        -The Shoebox
 

We connected our fuselage to our shoebox by cutting a flap in the back, folding and gluing it in. The fuselage was the packaging from the track of a track lighting system.

        -The Wings


We used double sided tape to connect sheets of styrofoam
We used a belt sander to shape our airfoils.
Belt sander + styrofoam = big mess
We sealed shrinkwrap on the wings with a Foodsaver®.
We used a hair dryer to shrink the shrinkwrap on the wings.
We Duck taped the wings to the shoebox.
We put Duck tape tightly on the top of the wings to curve them for more stability. We made a mess, but the wings were successful! We added a tail section to provide stability and make sure that it flies straight.

    -Finished Product



 
This is a side view of our glider after several impacts and repairs. This is the airfoil of our glider  The bottom of our glider is proof that Duck tape can fix anything.

    -Calculations


Glide-Slope Ratio

Glide-Slope ratio is calculated by dividing the distance that a glider flies by the height from which it is thrown. In our case, the glider was thrown from 1.02 meters up and flew for 34.0 meters. 34 / 1.02 = 33 1/3.

In other words, our glider flies 33 1/3 meters for every meter that it falls.

Our glider had a 33 1/3 :1 Glide-Slope ratio. Click on the graph above to see a larger image.

Aspect Ratio


AR = S = S
A C

AR=Aspect Ratio
S=Wing Span Length
A=Wing Area
C=Wing Chord Length

AR = (8 1/3 ft.)2 = 8 1/3 ft. = 50
(8 1/3 ft.)(1 1/12 ft.) 1 1/12 ft. 9

According to Nasa's Glenn Research Center, "High aspect ratio wings have long spans (like high performance gliders), while low aspect ratio wings have either short spans or thick chords (like the Space Shuttle)." This is why we created a glider with a long wingspan.



 
 
 
 
 

This is the beta 1.4 version of the NASA Glenn FoilSim II program.
Credits for FoilSim
The program below can calculate the approximate lift of our glider. Input the specifications on the left into the FoilSim applet.
Approximate Specifications of Our Glider
Wing Span:
Chord Length:
Thickness:
Angle:
Camber:
Speed:
Temperature:
 

Lift
Weight

8 1/3 ft.
1 1/12 ft.
10% of chord

5%
7.5 mph
70º
 

4.117 lbs (Changes as thrust decreases)
4.5 lbs



References/Links
 
 
Aerodynamics Index
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/short.html
NC Partners in Flight Intro
http://video.dpi.state.nc.us/eforums/partners/index.htm
Shoebox Glider Design Challenge
http://video.dpi.state.nc.us/eforums/partners/shoe_box_glider_challenge.htm
Shoebox Glider Rubric
http://video.dpi.state.nc.us/eforums/partners/shoebox_glider_rubric.htm
Challenge Teams
http://video.dpi.state.nc.us/eforums/partners/shoebox_challenge_teams.htm
Partners in Flight Kick-Off Agenda
http://video.dpi.state.nc.us/eforums/partners/partners_takeoff_agenda.htm
OH Partners in Flight Intro
http://www.ohiovalley.k12.oh.us/resources/flight/main.htm
UIUC Airfoil Coordinates Database - Version 2.0 (over 1550 airfoils)
http://www.aae.uiuc.edu/m-selig/ads/coord_database.html