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This summer I have been testing a rubber powered model airplane built mainly from foam plates with a fuselage of balsa. I have designed other planes like this but this one is more stable and flies consistently longer. This summer I had a group of kids build and fly these and they had more success that with previous models. http://ideas-inspire.com/fantastic-foam-flyer/ is the construction article. https://youtu.be/pHYgDh70hWE is a video of it flying outdoors explaining the phases of flight. Bill Kuhl

This is a great idea! It is very hands-on and i think it gives students a chance to collaborate not only together, but with the teacher as well as you walk around and observe their discoveries.

Thank you for your response, so far this design of the simple foam planes has flown the best. A couple of people have that have built the Fantastic Foam Flyer and have sent pictures to me. Bill Kuhl

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Hello, I enjoyed your project about the foam flyer! Your website included basically everything a teacher/parent/student should follow starting from clear directions to pictures. Now, what grade level for students do you feel appropriate this task? I would love to have my students make this one day. 

Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. The summer class was students 5th to 8th grade, probably more at the younger age and they did fine. Younger students would need more help. I would suggest building one yourself first to see how it goes.  Bill Kuhl

It is my hope that teachers would be able to combine the activity of building foam model airplanes with my tutorial of simple aerodynamic.

http://ideas-inspire.com/basic-aerodynamics-with-lesson/

Bill Kuhl

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