SAVAGE CONCEPTS
Paper Planes
This project had Kennedy Elli and I, as a team to design, develop and create a system and series of jigs to enable a paper airplane to be created whilst blindfolded with the ability for the plane to fly for a meter.
The first step that we took to approach this task was to establish what our plane would look like and how effective it would be at flying. Ellie and found that the planes we were creating were struggling to fly, so decided to research the extent of the brief and what options were had. I found a video of someone throwing a circular paper plane, and with the research Elli had completed into the definitions, it proved that this could be an option.
https://youtu.be/oikCkGFK1bk?si=Q3KLHJHXcg3xaZQ0
Being circular, this paper plane design had less folds and would make it an easier make for the person who is blindfolded. We broke this design down into a series of steps and created a prototype to test.
With our prototype of the plane complete, we reverse engineered the folds so we could get accurate measurements for our A4 sheet. There were a couple of methods that could be used to fix the shape together, so we devised a method to be used as well. This was developed through the trial and error of making the planes.
From the 3 sized fold, we established that we would need a set of 4 components – a base and 3 inserts.
Once we created our jig and its set up, we took it in turns to test the jig. Through out testing out of the jog and its components, we established that you would either need to lay everything out carefully before you put the blindfold on otherwise you would potentially struggle to get the pieces in order. We then decided to overcome this issue by numbering the stages, and using a glue gun to do so, would mean that you could feel the numbers when blindfolded.
Result: this was a successful project, and an efficient build. After the decision around which plane design to go for, we had a clear set of tasks and how to achieve them. Through the trialing out of the jig prior to demo, we were able to see the drawbacks within our jig (that the interchangeable parts felt the same) and were able to devise a solution for it.
Testing our Prototype
