Make · Planes, Gliders, and Paper Rockets

Do helicopters need more or less energy to stay in the sky than an airplane? What pushes a rocket to leave the atmosphere? Why can airplanes have smaller motors than helicopters?

Help your students learn the answers to these and other questions!

Written for educators, homeschoolers, parents--and kids!--this fully illustrated book provides a fun mix of projects, discussion materials, instructions, and subjects for deeper investigation around the basics of homemade flying objects. With the projects in this book, you can spend more time learning and experimenting, and less time planning and preparing.

Complete with download links to PDF templates that expand your teaching, this is your one-stop manual for learning about, interacting with, and being curious about airflow, gravity, torque, power, ballistics, pressure, and force.

In Make: Planes, Gliders, and Paper Rockets, you'll make and experiment with:

Paper catapult helicopter--add an LED light for night launches!

Pull-string stick helicopter

Rubber band airplane

Simple sled kite

25-cent quick-build kite

Air rockets with a parachute or a glider

Foam air rocket

Rocket stands

Bounce rocket

Low- and high-pressure rocket launchers