Life-sized balsa wood toy plane fails to liftoff

For the average child, killing hours on end tossing an easily assembled balsa wood toy plane isn't an uncommon occurrence; for Mark Clews, however, those flat packed crafts weren't exhilarating enough. The 24-year old bloke spent six whole months building a "life-sized edition" to the same exact specifications as the kits he adored as a wee boy. The aircraft boasted a 20-foot wingspan, was 15-feet in length, and was constructed with a slightly tougher wood than balsa. However, his engineering (and physics) skills weren't nearly as sharp as those carpentry ones, as he expected "an enormous rubberband" wound countless times around the propeller to launch the plane into flight. Unsurprisingly, the craft jolted forward a meager five feet, and "even backwards" on another attempt, rendering his project a failure. In an presumed attempt to alert others of how not to get airborne, his impressive (albeit permanently grounded) creation will be on display at the Learn to Fly expo next month in London.

[Via FARK]

[bobby @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:10PM]

Wow simply stunning

[TVGenius @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:19PM]

In the US, he would have gotten a half-million dollar grant to do that...

[Jon @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:20PM]

LOL - doesn't look like he even made the wings into an airfoil! How'd he expect any lift?

I guess he also forgot to take into account the fact that the balsa wood planes he played with as a kid didn't have a payload.

[Slashriffs @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:22PM]

Its not 5 feet.
They said 5 meters
5 meters = 16 feet

[Rusty @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:43PM]

Here is why it didn't work (you have to be old enough to remember the original balsa planes). It didn't have the words "TESTORS &BEND OREGON" on the wings & tail.

[ByronGman @ Oct 23rd 2006 8:56PM]

....and "even backwards" on another attempt....

ROFL, that made my day.

Yes, I'm easily amused.

[SonnyGuy @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:02PM]

reminds me of this:

http://alisssandra.com/archive/2006/02/page/14/

[Matt @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:04PM]

soon they will try to make a rubber band powered car

[Chris McDowell @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:06PM]

It is funny how his failed plane has made it into the museum.

[Ian Jardine @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:15PM]

The fact that it didn't "take off" probably saved his life.

[HughJass @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:20PM]

Um... He wasn't planning on riding the plane... Do you see anywhere for him to sit?

[Zoundguy @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:28PM]

yeah... dumb, I agree, no airfoil = no lift. Did he forget that as a child he THREW these things into the air? I dunno maybe mine were defunct, and they were supposed to be able to take off from the ground, by themselves.

[David Li @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:42PM]

That's a horrible example of a rubber band powered airplanes. It looks like one of those $5 kits that you can buy in hoobby stores.

Traditional rubberband powered airplanes can easily weigh only 1 gram and it's common to have them be airborne for more than 1/2 hour. They are a bit big and must be carefully designed/constructed. They are also pretty sensitive and any sudden air currents (it's an in door activity) can pwn your plane pretty fast.

[David Li @ Oct 23rd 2006 9:49PM]

I should also elaborate that parts are often constructed out of 1/8 inch square balsa segments.

The people who are into this usually have cabinet fulls of rubber bands from different years. They have equipment for everything to measure rubber band torque to measuring the number of twists in rubber bands themselves (upwards of 10,000 is not uncommon). The bands themselves come in long strings and the loops are cut to match the plane. People literally shield the bands from sunlight because UV-radiation can kill a good band. Of course, there's a special fluid you can buy to restore rubber bands to some extent (can be obtained from car sells a lot).

Anyways, you'll probably find this sport most popular in aviations clubs in Ohio and Indiana.

[Nick @ Oct 23rd 2006 10:20PM]

whoa david... whoa there buddy

[Tim @ Oct 23rd 2006 11:57PM]

HughJass, yes he did:

'Then I got into the cockpit and one of my friends started to wind up the 30m [100ft] elastic band on the propeller...'

[irony... @ Oct 24th 2006 2:25AM]

model balsa airplanes definitely were not "easily assembled"!!

eg.
http://www.cyberattic.com/stores/minnesotasfinest/items/516975/catphoto.jpg
http://www.kitesplus.com/newsite/pictures/2003/Jan%201st%20-%205th/Wendy%20%20is%20building%20a%20balsa%20plane%20with%20lots%20of%20parts.jpg

hours of painstaking work.

[Jason @ Oct 24th 2006 9:48AM]

"It looks like one of those $5 kits that you can buy in hoobby stores."

Duh. That's what it's supposed to look like -- 4 pieces of balsa wood, a prop, rubber band, wire piece for the landing gear, and 2 plastic wheels. We're talking about the cheap kits that little kids play with, not intricate models that adults play with.

[Mr. Mike @ Oct 24th 2006 10:20AM]

When I was a kid I had a little parachute man that you shot into the air with a sling-shot. Maybe he could try that next.

Personally, I'm planning on building a full-sized hand-pumped water propelled rocket to propel me into low-Earth orbit.

[Jake @ Oct 24th 2006 11:41AM]

Nice.

Just make sure that when they wrap your chute around you they don't wrap you up too tight. You'll never unravel and your chute won't open!

[Lee Gibson @ Oct 24th 2006 1:29PM]

You don't need an airfoil cross-section for lift. All you need is angle of attack. Stick your hand out the car window, and you'll see what I mean.

Teardrop-shaped cross sections offer superior lift to drag ratios, but that's not the only way to skin a cat.

Golf balls are not airfoil shaped, but they generate lift.

[Doug @ Oct 24th 2006 2:08PM]

Anyone have a larger size pic of this guys plane? much larger!

[bryanalter @ Oct 24th 2006 11:50PM]

The angles of the blades on the prop are way off -- much too horizontal...

[Derek @ Nov 15th 2006 10:23PM]

Wings and prop look way too small. The proportions look off even from a model plane.