Wright’s Flight Squadron

We held our second meeting, December 12, 2006 from 7:00-8:30 pm at South Davie Middle School Theatre.

We have three new members:  Colin Arnott from HanesMiddle School, DT Hinkle, from Cornatzer Elementary, and Luke Renegar from Brunson Elementary.  Also in attendance tonight are Austin Cummings, Dillon Cummings, Benjamin Horner, Tyler Laymon, and Charlie Smith.

We’re working on a nice logo for Wright’s Flight Squadron T-shirts.

Today’s Lesson:  We used a PowerPoint presentation to discuss Principles of Flight, Newton’s Laws of Motion and the four forces acting upon an airplane.  We took turns with Microsoft Flight simulator to fly the Wright Flyer, and Mrs. Horner shared a reflection of December 17, 1903.  Mrs. Horner brought rubber band-powered balsa airplanes to class.  At the end of the lesson, we went to the gym and tried them out.  What a fun way to demonstrate our lesson on Newton’s Laws of motion and the four forces acting upon an airplane.

Airplane of the Day:  The Wright Flyer, it was built by the two self-funded (no government grants), persistent brothers after years of experimenting, many failures and repairs, building their own engine, traveling by train and boat, (not by car) to Kitty Hawk to fly their aircraft.

Biography:  Wilbur and Orville Wright

“ . . . while thousands of the most dissimilar body structures, such as insects, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals, were flying every day at pleasure, it was reasonable to suppose that man might also fly.”  Wilbur Wright

Read more about the Wright Brothers:

Wright Reminiscences compiled by Ivonette Wright Miller, 1978

The Flyers, in Search of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Noah Adams

The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk by Donald J. Sobol

The Wright Brothers How They Invented the Airplane by Russell Freedman, a Newberry Honor Book

Airborne, A Photobiography of Wilbur and Orville Wright by Marty Collins, A National Geographic Book

Neat websites:

http://www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

www.youngeagles.org

http://www.nasm.si.edu/wrightbrothers/interactiveExperiments/index.cfm

 
Other activities of Wright's Flight Squadron

Wright’s Flight Squadron

Third Meeting Press Release

January 11, 2007

7:00-8:30 pm

South Davie Middle School Theatre

Wright’s Flight Squadron is an aviation club for youth ages 8-18.  Membership is free at this time.  We learn about flying topics, aircraft, and aviators with a threefold goal to educate, inspire, and edify interested youth.   If you have an interest in a flying or want to pursue an aviation career, then Wright’s Flight Squadron is for you.  Membership forms are available at the meetings, which are usually on the second Thursday of the month.  View pictures on our website:  www.wrightsflightschool.com.

We welcome three new members:  James Neal from SouthDavieMiddle School, David Neal from Mocksville Elementary, and Nicole Haynes from CentralDavieAcademy.  Also in attendance:  Benjamin Horner, Charlie Smith, DT Hinkle, Luke Renegar, Gerald Stake1y, Madison Stake1y. 

Special Member Presentation:  We had a presentation from Benjamin Horner, who did a science experiment for school with air-launched rockets.  Benjamin brought his rocket launcher and, due to technical difficulties at this meeting, will show pictures of the experiment next meeting.  He and his dad made rockets out of plastic Coke bottles and propelled them with the force from an air compressor.

 Remember, if any member has a presentation for our meeting, I will be glad to allow time to share it with us.  This could be anything aviation related, a science experiment from home or school, a book report, an aircraft study, military flying story, a biography, an Accelerated Reader book, there are many possibilities.
Shirt progress:  The more airplanes we study, the more personal our shirt logo will become.  Let’s take out time to get the right combination.  I still haven’t found suitable graphic designs.  What about patches?  While I was studying John Glenn on the NASA site, I thought that patches from NASA and from our Squadron could be a lot of fun, and you could transfer them to other clothing if necessary.
John Glenn:  Born July 18, 1921 in New Concord, Ohio, his life is like an aviation history of the twentieth century.  He lived through the depression, served in World War II and Korea as a Marine Pilot, lived in Cherry Point, NC for a while, was a test pilot, set a continental speed record in Project Bullet, pioneer astronaut in Project Mercury when NASA began, first man in orbit, Senator, oldest man in space on the Discovery team, inspirational role model for patriotism, hard work, and courage.
We used aircraft that John Glenn flew to calculate time, speed, and distance problems on the manual flight computers (E6B’s).  The manual flight computers are a circular scale, which quickly calculates flight operations in time, speed, and distance, fuel consumption, wind correction angle, speed and temperature conversions.  It is also capable of performance calculations such as true airspeed and density altitude.  Mrs. Horner has a classroom model E6B to facilitate the lessons and each student had an E6B during class to practice.

New members are welcome.  You need to be between the ages of 8 and 18 and have an interest in aviation.  Next Meeting:  Thursday, February 8, 2007 at 7:00 pm at South Davie Theatre.  We will talk about Amelia Earhart and study more kinds of calculations on the E6B.

Resources about John Glenn:

http://www.johnglennhome.org/john_glenn.shtml

http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/about/bios/john_glenn.html

About Project Bullet:  http://www.aeroengineer.net/history/f8/f8bullet.html

Book:  John Glenn, a Memoir            by John Glenn with Nick Taylor  This book is available in our Davie County Library.