The Great ShoeBox Glider Challenge

Celebrating the 103rd Anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ Invention of Powered Flight

South Fayette School District South Fayette Middle School The Flying Lions View our Power Point Presentation from Round 2!

Group one: Jon, Anthony, Richie, Jonathan and Nick. Group two: Sean, Joe, Dylan, and Eddie and Peter. Secretary: Sara

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Project Overview
During this challenge we had two different groups. Each group made a different shoebox gliders. The groups worked on this project from the end of November to the beginning of December. The groups worked many days after school during this time. Throughout this time, Sara documented design and building of both groups and took pictures for this website. The "Can a Shoebox Fly Challenge?" is a project where students have to take a shoebox and make it fly using any materials except for a motor. Whenever students compete with their glider, the shoebox must remain a shoebox and the airplane can not fall apart during the flight or upon landing. The objective of the competition was to build a glider from a shoebox to achieve a high glide slope ratio.

Glide slope ratio is the comparison of how far the plane travels to the distance a plane falls.

Example:

When we first started out on this project, the groups were introduced to the challenge and were taught about the aspects of flying and everything about airplanes. The groups were taught things like drag, thrust, weight, center of gravity, the aspect ratio, and lift. Once they were taught everything about flying, the groups started to design their airplane. They also talked about how an airplane would fly having various designs, such as an airplane with short wings vs. long wings or fat wings vs. skinny wings.

Before they could decide on a definite design of the plane, the groups had to look at the materials they would be able to use. The groups could use materials such as styrofoam, cardboard, and of course a shoebox. After looking at the materials that were available and applying everything they learned about flying, the groups decided that it was a good idea to use styrofoam for the wings and to use vertical and horizontal stabilizers.

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Building the Gliders

	Both groups got to work by first designing their airplanes and cutting and sanding down the wings.

After an hour and a half of sanding, group number two had a marvelous curve in the wing.
	Group number one wanted to find the center of gravity and they sure did. Nice work group one!!

Both groups also thought that it was a very good idea to make the tail of the airplane very strong.

To do this they took long pieces of balsa wood, cut them down into small pieces, and glued them together to strengthen the tail of the plane.

Group two decided to take a piece of wax paper and glue it to the tail of the plane so that there was less drag. Good thinking group two!!

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Testing the Gliders
After many hours of hard work, both groups tested their shoebox gliders and they successfully flew their gliders.

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Our Results
Both gliders were launched five feet from the ground. Group number one had a flight distance of twenty-eight feet but the plane broke upon landing.

Group number two had a flight distance of twenty-three feet and achieved a glide slope ratio of 4.6.

All of us at South Fayette learned much about shoebox gliders and aerodynamics. We also had lodes of fun and learned a lot during this challenge. We would like to thank Mrs. Clayton for helping us with this website and Mr. Kruth for providing this spectacular experience!!

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