STEM LEARNING:

Advanced Air Mobility: Rubber 

Band Helicopter Engineering 

Challenge Educator Guide

www.nasa.gov

National Aeronautics and Space Administration
2 | ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE)

OVERVIEW

Objectives Student Prerequisite Knowledge

Standards Materials

Preparation

In this lesson, students build a rubber band powered helicopter and use it to explore Newton’s third law and how it’s 

seen with the torque caused by rotating propellers. Using the engineering design process, students will experiment with, 

test, and modify their helicopter to achieve a goal.

Students will be able to:

• Explain how Newton’s third law of motion plays a 

role in rotary-winged flight

• Describe how a propeller’s design determines the 

direction of the thrust it creates

• Use the engineering design process to modify a 

design to achieve a prescribed goal

Before beginning this lesson, students should be familiar 

with:

• Newton’s third law of motion

Next Generation Science Standards

Disciplinary Core Ideas

• MS-PS2-2 Motion and stability: Forces and 

interactions 

Cross Cutting Concepts

• Systems and system models

• Cause and effect

Science and Engineering Practices

• Developing and using models

• Constructing explanations and designing solutions

Each group requires the following materials:

• Propeller

• Rubber band

• Craft stick

• Paper clip

• Tape

• Cardstock

• Scissors

F Print one student guide for each group or provide access to it digitally

F Gather enough materials for each group

F Place two piece of painter’s tape above the launch point to represent bounds of the helicopters’ goal. One should be 

1.5 meters above the launch point and the other should be 2 meters above the launch point.
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE) | 3 

Lesson Modifications

Grouping Students

Materials:

• The propellers can be ordered fairly inexpensively 

online. Alternatively, a search of the internet will 

provide methods for making them. Please note that 

making them so that they work correctly is difficult.

• Reusing the propellers for this activity helps keep 

the cost down when doing this activity with multiple 

classes or during different years.

• Set aside a designated test area in the room for 

helicopter flights. Make sure students know that this 

is the only location in the room for launching the 

helicopters.

• Any type of stiff paper, including recycled noncorrugated cardboard, can be used in place of the 

cardstock.

• Rubber bands must be slightly tensioned when 

connecting the propeller to the paperclip. Also, thick 

rubber bands do not work well for this activity.

• An alternative for the goal is to have the students’ 

helicopter fly up to the ceiling without touching it. 

If using this method, test that the ceilings are low 

enough that this is feasible.

Designs

• When improving their designs, there are several 

factors that students may change. These include, 

but are not limited to: how many times they wind 

the propeller, the area/shape of the fuselage, and 

the position of the paperclip.

• Students need to record any changes they make.

This activity can be completed either as a team or individually, as time, materials, and preference allows. Grouping 

strategies during the engineering design challenge can be used to efficiently break up tasks, help promote student 

engagement, and appeal to a variety of learning styles and student strengths. Below are some recommended group 

roles for this activity. Students should understand that they need to be active participants in their group, not just doing 

their main task. 

• Project manager—keeps the team on task, asks 

clarifying questions of the teacher, and is the team’s 

spokesperson for class discussions.

• Technical writer—writes down test data, takes notes, 

and writes the final evidence and reasoning portions of 

the assignment (with input from the rest of the team).

• Engineer—collects materials and coordinates the 

building of the initial and subsequent design(s). 

• Test pilot—winds the propeller, reports data to the 

team, and launches/recovers the helicopter.

Figure 1. This is an example of a propeller that works 

well for this activity.
4 | ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE)

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Newton’s Third Law of Motion

Sir Isaac Newton came up with three laws to describe 

the motion of objects. His third law states that for every 

action there is an equal and opposite reaction. We see 

this law in action frequently. For example, if an inflated 

balloon is released, the air comes out one end and the 

balloon moves in the opposite direction. The escaping 

air is the action, and the movement of the balloon is the 

equal and opposite reaction. 

Newton’s third law also applies to rotary-winged aircraft, 

such as helicopters or drones, because their spinning 

blades create both lift and torque. The blades on a 

helicopter or drone create a downward force by pushing 

the air down. The equal and opposite force is the 

upward force of lift. Assuming the lift is a stronger force 

than the gravity, it moves the aircraft up.

Torque

In addition to lift, a rotating propeller creates a force 

in the direction it rotates. According to Newton’s 

third law of motion, there must also be an equal 

and opposite force. This force, called torque, acts 

in the direction opposite of the propeller’s rotation. 

As shown in figure 3, when the blades rotate 

clockwise, the torque acts in the opposite direction, 

counterclockwise. If left unbalanced, the torque 

causes the body, or fuselage, of the helicopter to 

rotate. Engineers have devised several ways to 

compensate for torque. In the helicopter shown in 

figure 3, the tail rotor creates a force to balance out 

the torque which keeps the fuselage from rotating. 

Figure 2. The blades on a helicopter create lift that moves it 

upward. Credit: NASA/ Dan Casper

Figure 3. The force created by the tail rotor balances out the 

torque. Credit: NASA
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE) | 5 

Propellers

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, or UAVs, usually fly below 

400 feet, are electrically powered, and use rotating 

propellers to provide both lift and thrust. The propeller 

size varies according to the size of the aircraft. Small 

package carrying drones only require small, relatively 

slow propellers whereas larger air taxis require larger, 

faster rotating ones. Propellers on some larger aircraft are 

even capable of being turned to point upward or forward 

to provide lift like a helicopter’s blades or thrust like an 

airplane’s propeller.

Relative to the direction an aircraft is moving, propeller 

blades are angled. The angle, or pitch, of the blades 

determines the direction the air is pushed. The speed at 

which the propellers rotate, along with the pitch of the 

blades, determines how much air is pushed.

Reversing the direction of a propeller’s rotation reverses 

the direction the air is pushed. Think of it like a screw—if it 

is turned in one direction, it moves down and if it is turned 

the other way, it moves up.

Figure 5. This computer simulation shows the movement 

of air caused by the rotating of a quadcopter’s propellers. 

Credit: Seokkwan Yoon, NASA/Ames

Figure 4. On some aircraft, the propellers can rotate to 

provide upward lift or forward thrust. Credit: NASA
6 | ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE)

TEACHER DIRECTIONS

1. Use a warm-up or other method to engage students in a discussion about rotary-winged flight and how the 

principles of rotary-winged flight would apply to quadcopters.

2. Use the “Background Information” section of the student and educator guides to aide students in learning about 

Newton’s third law, torque, and propeller pitch. 

3. Host a class discussion to ensure every student understands how torque and propeller pitch affect rotary aircraft.

4. Have students build the helicopters and conduct the baseline testing. 

5. Have students hypothesize how the size of the paper affected the flight of the helicopter.

6. Host a class discussion about how varying the paper size affected air resistance and how that affected balancing out 

the torque created by the propeller.

7. Introduce the design challenge to students, including criteria and constraints. Describe and assign group roles, if 

applicable. 

8. Ask teams/students to generate a list of factors they could change on their helicopter and how each would affect its 

flight. Have a brief discussion to share and compile a list of the top 3–5 factors. Some recommended factors include: 

how many wind up turns, size of paper used for the fuselage, shape of fuselage, and tension caused by the angle of 

the paper clip.

9. Have teams/students sketch an initial design for their helicopter, specifying their proposed design for each of the top 

factors. If students are submitting one student packet per group, distribute additional scratch paper so that every 

student can sketch. 

10. Have the group examine the designs their group members came up with. Then, discuss the pros and cons of each 

and pick one that they want to build. 

11. Give students about 20 minutes to build and test their prototype. 

12. After the first test, students can refine one factor of their design if they have time in preparation for the final class 

test.

13. Have students present their models, then test one at a time and record their final results.

14. After the final test, give students time to answer questions about their own models and evaluate what features from 

the other models worked well. Inevitably, there will be groups that will want to modify and test another iteration. You 

can choose whether or not you have time for this. 
ADVANCED AIR MOBILITY: RUBBER BAND POWERED HELICOPTER ENGINEERING CHALLENGE (EDUCATOR GUIDE) | 7 

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS (STUDENT GUIDE)

1. As a jet airplane flies, it burns fuel; these hot gases come out the back of the airplane. This is the action. And, 

according to Newton’s third law of motion, there must be an equal and opposite force created. This equal and 

opposite force is the reaction, the thrust that propels the plane forward.

2. On the V-22, there are two rotors with three blades apiece. The pitch of each of the three blades on a rotor is the 

same. However, the pitches of the blades are opposite for the two different rotors. This means one has to rotate 

clockwise to create lift and the other has to rotate counterclockwise to create lift. By spinning in opposite directions, 

the torques created by the two rotors, while equal in magnitude, are in opposite directions. As a result, they cancel 

each other out and the plane’s fuselage is not rotated by the torque.
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