1. Paper Plane Project
Scott Leonard

2. In my project I…
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Created several paper aeroplanes
Measured them
Threw them
Measured different aspects of the throws;
distance flown, time in air …etc…
• Repeated to find the averages

3. Measuring Distance
For this experiment I threw the aeroplanes
• Measured the distance in metres and
centimetres.
• Repeated this five times to get more
information from the throws.
• I repeated this for all the aeroplanes I made.

4. Measuring Distance
Plane 1
Plane 1 Average
Plane 2
Plane 2 Average

5. Averages – Plane 1
• The Mean
– The mean is what you
get when you add up all
the values and then
divide by the number of
values you have got.
– 7.69 metres
• The Median
– The median is the
middle value
– 7.52 metres
There wasn’t much difference between the mean and median
average results. This was caused by the low range of data
gathered.

6. Averages – Plane 2
• The Mean
– The mean distance for
plane 2 was 2.29 metres.
• The Median
– The median distance for
plane 2 was 2.35 meters.
There wasn’t much difference between the mean and median
average results. This was also caused by the low range of data
gathered.

7. Aspect Ratio
• The aspect ratio is the ratio of the width of a shape to its
height when the width is larger than the height.
• Aspect ratio is wing span divided by wing chord.
• Planes with a higher aspect ratio will glide better and fly
further than planes with a low aspect ratio.
• Planes with a high aspect ratio include the Bombardier Dash
and the Glaser-Dirks glider
• Planes with a low aspect ratio include Concorde.
The Bombardier Dash has a high aspect ratio

8. Aspect Ratio
• Plane 1 - had a wing span of 2.35cm and a wing height 5.70cm.
I divided the wing span by the wing height to get an aspect ratio
of 0.41.
• Plane 2 - had a wing span of 1.82cm and a wing height 5.56cm.
I divided the wing span by the wing height to get an aspect ratio
of 0.33.
• The plane with the higher aspect ratio flew further as expected.

9. Aspect Ratio
Plane 1
Aspect ratio: 0.41
Plane 2
Aspect ratio: 0.33

10. Speed
• I carried out the experiment by throwing both of the
planes five times and measuring how far they went
and how long they took to reach the floor.
• I measured the distance they flew in metres and the
time they took in seconds.
• To find the speed I used distance divided by time.
• The first plane’s average speed was 6.98 m/s and the
second plane’s average speed was 2.40 m/s.
• The second plane was expected to be faster as it had
the lower aspect ratio but it didn’t. This was most
likely cause by the folds being uneven.

11. Checked work
• I checked by using
– Hand calculations of the
total and average flight
time
– Calculator
• Errors I fixed were
– To the design, the plane
wasn’t even.
– Measurements taken
were slightly off, I
checked them, found
that they were incorrect
and measured again.
– Corrected average
calculations

12. Rounding
• I measured to the nearest
– Centimetre, 0.01 centimetres and 0.01 seconds.
• I worked these out to the nearest
– Centimetre when measuring height and distance.
– 0.01 centimetres when measuring wing span and wing
height.
– 0.01 seconds when timing.
– 0.01 when measuring the averages.
– 0.01 meters per second when measuring the speed.

13. The site I used
• http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/
• Includes a description, images and sometimes
a video on how to make the paper
aeroplanes.
• The most popular planes on the site were the
paper helicopter, dragon paper airplane and
the trapezium plane.

14. Tips for best performance
• Fold carefully
• Make sure it’s well balanced
• Make adjustments, e.g. add blue tack, fold
the wings upwards
• Give your plane a high aspect ratio
• Make the plane heavier at the nose

15. Sources
• http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/
• http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/peteplan.php#instructions
• http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/shadow.php#instructions
• http://www.paperairplanes.co.uk/swallow.php