I believe that a more Aerodynamic airplane with narrow but slightly spread out wings to minimize drag but still lift the airplane up would be the best and fastest airplane that goes the furthest.

Background Research:

What is Aerodynamics?

Now,we have been saying the term aerodynamic,but what really is Aerodynamics? Well aerodynamics is basically how objects move through the air.You might ask well,how do airplanes move through the air in the first place? The answer to this question is simple: If there was no such thing as thrust,than when an airplane went in to the sky then it would immediately be pushed to the ground because of the force of gravity/weight. However,thrust pushes the airplane through the air allowing it to fly.                                                                                                       Background Research:

What are the Four Forces of Flight?

There are four forces of flight.There are two positive forces that benefit the aircraft and two negative forces that affect the aircraft.The two positive forces are thrust and lift,while the negative being drag and gravity/weight.Thrust is the force that pushes the aircraft forward through the air. Lift is the force that pushes the aircraft up while it is flying. Gravity is the force that pushes the aircraft down,and finally drag is the force that opposes thrust by pulling the aircraft in the opposite direction and slowing it down.Most airplanes are designed to minimise drag as much as possible.

Independent Variable  3 different paper airplanes: Arrowhead, Dagger and F-15 Jet

Controlled Variable  The starting point to throw the airplanes was the same

Dependent Variable The speed and distance

• Step 1: I will create three different paper airplanes to use in the test.
• Step 2: I will put the planes to the test by throwing them indoors in two separate tests:distance and speed to see which flies the fastest and farthest.For distance I will mark the places they landed to see which went the furthest and for speed I will use a stopwatch to see which goes the fastest.
• Step 3: I will record the results down in the results slide and the observations slide before the conclusion.

Observations for Distance

Observations for Speed

The paper airplanes were thrown and put to the test. For distance,the winner was Arrowhead and the results are: In first place we have the Arrowhead, In Second place we have the F-15 Jet, and finally in Third place we have the Dagger. For speed,the winner was the F-15 Jet and the results are: In first place we have the F-15 Jet, in Second place we have the Dagger, and finally in third we have the Arrowhead.

From the test and all the research,I can conclude that if you are looking for a design to fly farther and stay in the air for longer than you would want a thicker plane with broad wings like the arrowhead. But if you are looking for a faster model than that would be a narrow airplane from the front with slightly wide wings at the back like the F-15 Jet.

The information from this project could help engineers to create more different and creative airplanes specialised for different things like flying long distances or being really fast by combining my ideas into newly invented models to build hopefully better working planes.

There were many sources of error during the process of making this project. When I was making the paper airplanes it was very tricky. It took me many tries and some help from my siblings before I could finally make them.  Another source of error was during the test I had to keep trying  many different ways to throw the airplanes so that they flew properly before I could begin the actual test and I couldn’t use the exact amount of strength every time I threw them, which could affect the speed.

NASA. (2024, February 7). What is aerodynamics? (grades 5-8). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/learning-resources/for-kids-and-students/what-is-aerodynamics-grades-5-8/

YouTube. (2018, July 7). What is aerodynamics?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ma4OelXpuHM

YouTube. (2013, October 21). The Basics of Aerodynamics. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1gEXs_gna4