You’re going to do several experiments that change air pressure and mystify your kids. The goal is to set them thinking about how and why things fly (you’ll do this by learning about air pressure and Bernoulli’s law).


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You’re going to do several experiments that change air pressure and mystify your kids. The goal is to set them thinking about how and why things fly (you’ll do this by learning about air pressure and Bernoulli’s law).


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Flying machines are just plain awesome, and ones that can fly without really looking like they should are even better! Throw this one like a football for longer flights!

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The Ancient Chinese discovered that kites with curved surfaces flew better than kites with flat surfaces. A wing needs to have camber: the top needs to be slightly curved, like a bump, and the bottom is straight.

This is called an airfoil. Airfoils are designed to generate as much lift as possible with as little drag as possible. Here’s how you make an airfoil:

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This is a recording of a recent live teleclass I did with thousands of kids from all over the world. I’ve included it here so you can participate and learn, too!


Soar, zoom, fly, twirl, and gyrate with these amazing hands-on classes which investigate the world of flight. Students created flying contraptions from paper airplanes and hangliders to kites! Topics we will cover include: air pressure, flight dynamics, and Bernoulli’s principle.


Materials:


  • 5 sheets of 8.5×11” paper
  • 2 index cards
  • 2 straws
  • 2 small paper clips
  • Scissors, tape
  • Optional: ping pong ball and a small funnel
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Rene Descartes (1596-1650) was a French scientist and mathematician who used this same experiment show people about buoyancy. By squeezing the bottle, the test tube (diver) sinks and when released, the test tube surfaces. You can add hooks, rocks, and more to your set up to make this into a buoyancy game!
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Fill the bathtub and climb in. Grab your water bottle and tack and poke several holes into the lower half the water bottle. Fill the bottle with water and cap it. Lift the bottle above the water level in the tub and untwist the cap. Water should come streaming out. Close the cap and the water streams should stop. Open the cap and when the water streams out again, can you “pinch” two streams together using your fingers?


Materials: A tack, and a plastic water bottle with cap, and bathtub


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This experiment illustrates that air really does take up space! You can’t inflate the balloon inside the bottle without the holes, because it’s already full of air. When you blow into the bottle with the holes, air is allowed to leak out making room for the balloon to inflate. With the intact bottle, you run into trouble because there’s nowhere for the air already inside the bottle to go when you attempt to inflate the balloon.


You’ll need to get two balloons, one tack, and two empty water bottles.


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Fire eats air, or in more scientific terms, the air gets used up by the flame and lowers the air pressure inside the jar. The surrounding air outside the jar is now at a higher pressure than the air inside the jar and it pushes the balloon into the jar. Remember: Higher pressure pushes!


Materials: a balloon, one empty glass jar, scrap of paper towel , matches with an adult


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As you blow air into the bottle, the air pressure increases inside the bottle. This higher pressure pushes on the water, which gets forced up and out the straw (and up your nose!).


Materials: small lump of clay, water, a straw, and one empty 2-liter soda bottle.


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If your kids are hog-wild about flying and can't seem to get enough of paper airplanes, flying kites, and rockets, here's something you can do that will last their entire lifetime.

One of the best ways to introduce kids into the world of aeronautics and aviation is to get them inside a small airplane. By having the kids actually FLY, they get a chance to interact with a real pilot, see how the airplane responds to the controls, and get a taste for what their future can really be like if they keep up their studies in aerodynamics.

We're going to learn how to fly an airplane from a certified flight instructor.  He's going to walk you through every step, from pre-flight to take-off to landing.  You'll hear the radio transmissions from other aircraft flying in the area, how the control tower directs traffic, and more.  We've used a special microphone inside the cockpit to cut down on the engine noise (which actually was rigged up to only record when it heard voice sounds), so the sound might seem different than you expected.

Are you ready?

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Ever wonder how airplanes fly through those fluffy white things in the sky? If they can't see where they are going, how do they get there?

You might be tempted to think: "GPS!" Ah, yes... but airplanes were flying through clouds long before GPS was ever invented. So how did they do it? That's what this video is all about.

Although most new planes are being outfitted with "glass cockpits", which is to say computer screens with GPS systems, there's really nothing like a plane with vacuum-tube instruments, crackling radios, transponders, VOS, and DMEs. We're going to show you how IFR pilots (those who are specially trained to fly only by instruments without peeking out the window) use their equipment to get the plane down to the ground.

Are you ready? Then strap on your seat belt and get ready to fly with a certified instrument flight instructor...

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This is a double-project, because each requires the scraps of the other. The origami airplane requires a square sheet of paper, and the ninja star needs the strip left over from turning a regular sheet of copy paper into a square sheet.

Both of these contraptions fly well if you take your time and make them carefully. Just watch yourself with the ninja star - it's not only fast and furious, the ends are sharp and guaranteed to turn heads... and necks.
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My students love making this one, because it's not only a throwing star like the Ninja Star, but also opens up to be a frisbee! You'll need eight sheets of square paper, all the same size. They don't have to be large - I use two that are cut into quarters. Here's what you do:

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Every flying thing, whether it's an airplane, spacecraft, soccer ball, or flying kid, experiences four aerodynamic forces: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. An airplane uses a propeller or jet engine to generate thrust. The wings create lift. The smooth, pencil-thin shape minimizes drag. And the molecules that make up the airplane attribute to the weight.

Think of a time when you were riding in a fast-moving car. Imagine rolling down the window and sticking out your hand, palm down. The wind slips over your hand. Suppose you turn your palm to face the horizon. In which position do you think you would feel more force against your hand?

When designing airplanes, engineers pay attention to details, such as the position of two important points: the center of gravity and the center of pressure (also called the center of lift). On an airplane, if the center of gravity and center of pressure points are reversed, the aircraft’s flight is unstable and it will somersault into chaos. The same is true for rockets and missiles!

How to Build an Airplane


Materials: balsa wood flyer

This video shows how to use a balsa airplane to show what all the parts (rudder, wings, elevator, fuselage) are for.  You can pick one up for a few dollars, usually at a toy store, or make your own (see second video below).

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As you blow into the funnel, the air under the ball moves faster than the other air surrounding the ball, which generates an area of lower air pressure. The pressure under the ball is therefore lower than the surrounding air which is, by comparison, at a higher pressure. This higher pressure pushes the ball back into the funnel, no matter how hard you blow or which way you hold the funnel. The harder you blow, the more stuck the ball becomes. Cool.


Materials: A funnel and a ping pong ball


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Where’s the pressure difference in this trick?


At the opening of the glass. The water inside the glass weighs a pound at best, and, depending on the size of the opening of the glass, the air pressure is exerting 15-30 pounds upward on the bottom of the card. Guess who wins? Tip, when you get good at this experiment, try doing it over a friend’s head!


Materials: a glass, and an index card large enough to completely cover the mouth of the glass.


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About 400 years ago, Leonardo da Vinci wanted to fly… so he studied the only flying things around at that time: birds and insects. Then he did what any normal kid would do—he drew pictures of flying machines!


Centuries later, a toy company found his drawing for an ornithopter, a machine that flew by flapping its wings (unlike an airplane, which has non-moving wings). The problem (and secret to the toy’s popularity) was that with its wing-flapping design, the ornithopter could not be steered and was unpredictable: It zoomed, dipped, rolled, and looped through the sky. Sick bags, anyone?


Hot air balloons that took people into the air first lifted off the ground in the 1780s, shortly after Leonardo da Vinci’s plans for the ornithopter took flight. While limited seating and steering were still major problems to overcome, let’s get a feeling for what our scientific forefathers experienced as we make a balloon that can soar high into the morning sky.


Materials: A lightweight plastic garbage bag, duct or masking tape, a hand-held hair dryer. And a COLD morning.


Here’s what you do:


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Lots of science toy companies will sell you this experiment, but why not make your own? You’ll need to find a loooooong bag, which is why we recommend a diaper genie. A diaper genie is a 25′ long plastic bag, only both ends are open so it’s more like a tube. You can get three 8-foot bags out of one pack.


Kids have a tendency to shove the bag right up to their face and blow, cutting off the air flow from the surrounding air into the bag. When they figure out this experiment and perform it correctly, this is one of those oooh-ahhh experiments that will leave your kids with eyes as big as dinner plates.


Here’s what you do:


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solar-balloonWe didn't include this particular experiment in our shopping list, as the tube's kind of expensive and can only be used for one particular experiment, BUT it's an incredible blast to do in the summer.

Here's the main idea - an incredibly loooooong and super-lightweight black plastic garbage bag is filled with air and allowed to heat itself in the sun. In a few short minutes, the entire 60-foot tube tube rises into the air. Before you try this experiment, try the Hot Air Balloon first!

Order the Solar Tube here.

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This is another favorite of mine - you can fold this one in under two minutes. Make sure you tweak your airplane to get it to fly just the way you want.



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Why can this thing fly? It doesn’t even LOOK like a plane! When I teach at the university, this is the plane that mathematically isn’t supposed to be able to fly! There are endless variations to this project—you can change the number of loops and the size of loops, you can tape two of these together, or you can make a whole pyramid of them. Just be sure to have fun!

Materials: Index card, straw, scissors, tape.

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This experiment is one of my favorites to use when teaching university-level fluid mechanics, because it is quite a complex task to demonstrate and analyze the aerodynamic lift. The easiest explanation is that lift is generated by the rotation of the cups. How and why the vortex generates lift is much more complex, but remember that as the air velocity increases, the pressure decreases. And remember... higher pressure regions always push.

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Build your own paper version of a soaring, looping flying machine, much like the one DaVinci dreamed of. You can either hold this by the keep (the folded part on the bottom) and throw like a jet, or hold onto the very edge at the back and simply let go from a tall height. Either way, it'll still fly.

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This is one of the fastest plane designs we've come across. Slick, swift, and strong, you'll need a hefty throw to break our record of 127 feet. If you do, let us know so we can celebrate with you!

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This super-fast dart flyer requires only a sheet of paper and three patient minutes. Take the challenge and dig out a stopwatch and tape measure to record your best "time aloft" and "distance traveled". I usually write mine right onto the wing itself (on the underside).

In fact, each time it flies well, I'll take a measurement and so pretty soon my plane has a data table under the wing. This way, I know which plane to choose in a race!

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A classic that we just had to toss into the mix. The best thing about this plane it that it shows you how to fold an airplane without using tape. Notice how the wings of this airplane are different than the stunt plane designs - the swept back design mimics those used on fighter planes from the Air Force.

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iStock_000003125985XSmallWe’ve included several flying designs for you to test, including: stunt planes, fast jets, hang gliders, and a one that, mathematically-speaking, isn’t even supposed to fly.

The trick to any paper airplane, be it a dart, stunt, or glider, is in the tweaking. In order to turn a disappointing nose-diver into a stellar barrel-roller, you’ll need to pay close attention to your dihedral angle (angle the wings make with the horizon) and elevator angle (pinching up or down to the tail section).

Here’s how we do it:

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Did you know that the Wright brothers figured out one of the biggest leaps in propeller technology?  Prop blades had basically stayed the same for about 2,500 years until they figured out to take an airplane wing, turn it sideways and rotate it to create thrust.  The main idea being a wing is that it needs to have a half-twist and the thickness needs to vary along its length (this is because you want to get the same amount of thrust at each point along its length, or one part of the propeller will generate more thrust and rip itself apart).

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We're going to make spinning, flying fish! All you need is a strip of paper and a pair of scissors to make these. If you 're like me, you'll make a whole grocery-bag full of a rainbow assortment and drop them from the upstairs railing - it's quite a show!

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This is such a cool project that I had to include it in our Flying Machines archive. The science teacher who developed this project has a sincere love of gliders he calls “walk-along flyers”. Note that the instructions for making this project are longer and more precise than usual, so take your time and go slow.


If your kids love airplanes, you’ll be able to keep them busy for hours with this project! You will be flying a piece of paper, surfing it on a wave of air created with cardboard. Are you ready?  There are two different designs to choose from: the Tumblewing, which works by rotation, and the Hanglider.


Here’s what you need:


  • piece of paper from a phone book
  • scrap of cardboard
  • scissors
  • help from a very patient adult
  • an afternoon (this project is super-sensitive and you need time and persistence to accomplish it!)

Tumblewing Design

You’ll need to print out this Tumblewing template to get started.



Hanglider Design:

You’ll need to print out this Hanglider template to get started.



 


A big THANKS goes out to projects developer and science teacher Slater Harrison for his ultra-cool flying inventions!


The best, all purpose, lazy afternoon loop-and-corkscrew stunt flying machine that we've found. This plane can easily go straight, or curve in a loop, or do a barrel roll, or boomerang back to you...and it can even do the bat maneuver (nose-up-nose-down-nose-up-nose-down-nose-up-nose-down...) with the right kind of tweaking. Spend extra time on those back elevators and you'll get a plane worthy of warm drafts.
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While this isn’t actually an air-pressure experiment but more of an activity in density, really, it’s still a great visual demonstration of why Hot Air Balloons rise on cold mornings.


Imagine a glass of hot water and a glass of cold water sitting on a table, side by side. Now imagine you have a way to count the number of water molecules in each glass. Which glass has more water molecules?


The glass of cold water has way more molecules… but why? The cold water is more dense than the hot water. Warmer stuff tends to rise because it’s less dense than colder stuff and that’s why the hot air balloon in experiment 1.10 floated up to the sky.


Clouds form as warm air carrying moisture rises within cooler air. As the warm, wet air rises, it cools and begins to condense, releasing energy that keeps the air warmer than its surroundings. Therefore, it continues to rise. Sometimes, in places like Florida, this process continues long enough for thunderclouds to form. Let’s do an experiment to better visualize this idea.


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When air moves, the air pressure decreases. This creates a lower air pressure pocket right between the cans relative to the surrounding air. Because higher pressure pushes, the cans clink together. Just remember – whenever there’s a difference in pressure, the higher pressure pushes.


You will need about 25 straws and two empty soda cans or other lightweight containers


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You’re about to play with one of the first methods of underwater breathing developed for scuba divers hundreds of years ago.! Back then, scientists would invert a very large clear, bell-shaped jar over a diver standing on a platform, then lower the whole thing into the water. Everyone thought this was a great idea, until the diver ran out of breathable air…


Materials: 12″ flexible tubing, two clear plastic cups, bathtub


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An average can of soda at room temperature measures 55 psi before you ever crack it open. (In comparison, most car tires run on 35 psi, so that gives you an idea how much pressure there is inside the can!)


If you heat a can of soda, you’ll run the pressure over 80 psi before the can ruptures, soaking the interior of your house with its sugary contents. Still, you will have learned something worthwhile: adding energy (heat) to a system (can of soda) causes a pressure increase. It also causes a volume increase (kaboom!).
How about trying a safer variation of this experiment using water, an open can, and implosion instead of explosion?


Materials – An empty soda can, water, a pan, a bowl, tongs, and a grown-up assistant.


NOTE: If you can get a hold of one, use a beer can – they tend to work better for this experiment. But you can also do this with a regular old soda can. And no, I am not suggesting that kids should be drinking alcohol! Go ask a parent to find you one – and check the recycling bin.


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This project is simple, yet highly satisfying.  The current record distance traveled is 74 feet... can you beat that?  Make sure you launch these UP, not horizontally! You only need three items, all of which are in your house right now! First, you need a piece of...

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This project is simple, yet highly satisfying.  The current record distance traveled is 74 feet... can you beat that?  Make sure you launch these UP, not horizontally! You only need three items, all of which are in your house right now! First, you need a piece of...

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When designing airplanes, engineers pay attention to details, such as the position of two important points: the center of gravity and the center of pressure (also called the center of lift). On an airplane, if the center of gravity and center of pressure points are reversed, the aircraft’s flight is unstable and it will somersault into chaos. The same is true for rockets and missiles!

Let’s find the center of gravity on your airplane. Grab your flying machine and sharpened pencil. You can find the ‘center of gravity’ by balancing your airplane on the tip of a pencil. Label this point “CG” for Center of Gravity.

Materials:

  • sheet of paper

  • hair dryer

  • pencil with a sharp tip


We're going to make a paper airplane first, and then do a couple of wind tunnel tests on it.

For the project, all you need is a sheet of paper and five minutes... this is one my favorite fliers that we make with our students!


Find the Center of Pressure (CP) by doing the opposite: Using a blow-dryer set to low-heat so you don’t scorch your airplane, blast a jet of air up toward the ceiling. Put your airplane in the air jet and, using a pencil tip on the top side of your plane, find the point at which the airplane balances while in the airstream. Label this point “CP” for Center of Pressure. (Which one is closest to the nose?)


Besides paying attention to the CG and CP points, aeronautical engineers need to figure out the static and dynamic stability of an airplane, which is a complicated way of determining whether it will fly straight or oscillate out of control during flight. Think of a real airplane and pretend you’ve got one balanced on your finger. Where does it balance? Airplanes typically balance around the wings (the CG point). Ever wonder why the engines are at the front of small airplanes? The engine is the heaviest part of the plane, and engineers use this weight for balance, because the tail (elevator) is actually an upside-down wing that pushes the tail section down during flight.

How does an airplane remain stable during flight? Positive stability means that the airplane is designed so that if the pilot jams on the controls during straight and level flight (in other words, pitch up hard), and then let go, the airplane will more or less return to straight and level flight.

Let's make another favorite flyer of mine...
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Mathematically speaking, this particular flying object shouldn't be able to fly.  What do you think about that? Why can this thing fly? It doesn’t even LOOK like a plane! When I teach at the university, this is the plane that mathematically isn’t supposed to be able to fly! There are endless variations to this project—you can change the number of loops and the size of loops, you can tape two of these together, or you can make a whole pyramid of them. Just be sure to have fun!
It's actually a bit complicated to explain how this thing flies when "mathematically" it isn't supposed to, but here goes: there are FOUR forces at work with your flying machine. Gravity is always pulling it down, but air pressure keeps it up (called lift). The way real airplane wings generate lift is by having a curved surface on the top which decreases the air pressure, and since higher pressure pushes, the wing generates lift by moving through the air. (If this idea doesn't make sense, be sure to watch this video first!) Ok, but what about a flat wing? If you drop a regular sheet of paper, it flutters to the ground. If you wad it up first, you’ll find it falls much faster. The air under the falling paper needs to get out of the way as gravity pulls the paper, which is a lot easier when the paper is wadded into a ball. For a flat wing (like on a paper airplane) to glide through the air, it needs to be balanced between gravity and the air resistance holding it up. In order for a glider to fly, the center of pressure needs to be behind the center of gravity (learn more about center of pressure and center of gravity in the third video below). By adding paper clips to your paper airplane, you move the center of gravity and center of pressure around to find the perfect balance. When designing airplanes, engineers pay attention to details, such as the position of two important points: the center of gravity and the center of pressure (also called the center of lift). On an airplane, if the center of gravity and center of pressure points are reversed, the aircraft’s flight is unstable and it will somersault into chaos. The same is true for rockets and missiles! Let’s find the center of gravity on your airplane. Grab your flying machine and sharpened pencil. You can find the ‘center of gravity’ by balancing your airplane on the tip of a pencil. Label this point “CG” for Center of Gravity. Materials:
    • sheet of paper
 
    • hair dryer
 
    • pencil with a sharp tip
  We're going to make a paper airplane first, and then do a couple of wind tunnel tests on it. For the project, all you need is a sheet of paper and five minutes... this is one my favorite fliers that we make with our students!
Find the Center of Pressure (CP) by doing the opposite: Using a blow-dryer set to low-heat so you don’t scorch your airplane, blast a jet of air up toward the ceiling. Put your airplane in the air jet and, using a pencil tip on the top side of your plane, find the point at which the airplane balances while in the airstream. Label this point “CP” for Center of Pressure. (Which one is closest to the nose?)
Besides paying attention to the CG and CP points, aeronautical engineers need to figure out the static and dynamic stability of an airplane, which is a complicated way of determining whether it will fly straight or oscillate out of control during flight. Think of a real airplane and pretend you’ve got one balanced on your finger. Where does it balance? Airplanes typically balance around the wings (the CG point). Ever wonder why the engines are at the front of small airplanes? The engine is the heaviest part of the plane, and engineers use this weight for balance, because the tail (elevator) is actually an upside-down wing that pushes the tail section down during flight. When we use math to add up the forces (the pull of gravity would be the weight, for example), it works out that there isn’t enough lift generated by thrust to overcome the weight and drag. When I say, “mathematically speaking...” I mean that the numbers don’t work out quite right. When this happens in science for real scientists, it usually means that they don’t fully understand something yet. There are a number of ‘unsolved’ mysteries still in science.. maybe you’ll be able to help us figure them out? Please login or register to read the rest of this content.


A rocket has a few parts different from an airplane. One of the main differences is the absence of wings. Rockets utilize fins, which help steer the rocket, while airplanes use wings to generate lift. Rocket fins are more like the rudder of an airplane than the wings. A fighter plane is like a cross between a rocket and an airplane, because of the high amount of thrust generated by the engines.

A pulse jet engine is something students make in college engineering courses under the direction of experienced professors. When I was a student, we made a small Pulse Jet Engine out of clear acrylic that burned bright and loud enough to wear eye and hearing protection.

These types of engines are very simple, as they have no moving parts. They've been used on scram jet engines and other types of supersonic craft.  A pulsejet engine works by alternately pushing out a hot breath of air rearward and then breathing in fresh air to replace it.  They can run on gasoline, diesel, or kerosene. 

The video below is for DEMONSTRATION PURPOSES ONLY. Please read text below the video.

Note: Please don't try to make one of these pulse jets! There are videos that will show you how, and not one of them I've found is safe to do without a supervising instructor... in fact, they are highly dangerous because of the types of containers and fuels people have chosen to try. The container must be able to withstand high thermal differentials and pressure changes, and the propellant chosen must not burn too hot or you'll explode the container.


After you've made the paper flying machines, it's time to step it up and make an electric plane that really flies around in a circle. You can suspend this from a string tied to the ceiling or pop it into the eraser top on a wooden pencil. Either way, it's guaranteed to make you and your cat quite dizzy.

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