If the whole class is involved, you should end up with information about a wide variety of flying machines. The four principles that govern the motion of an object in flight are lift, weight, thrust, and drag . Each force has an opposite companion. Each of these forces can be graphically represented by an arrow with a plus sign at the point. Inviting students to work in pairs, instruct each partner draw a diagram of an airplane.
Partners can take turns explaining to each other how each force affects a plane in flight.
This book's unique approach is its consistent intermingling of nature and technology throughout the text and the diagrams to explain the mechanics of flight. The evolution of the technology by which man has attempted to master flight is documented in these works, which draw heavily upon the collections of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. Rich in vocabulary and scientific principles with diagrams and MPEG movies to help us understand the inventions that help humans fly. The Paper Airplane Hanger Start an aeronautics competition at your school and learn the principles of flight with the many downloadable paper airplanes at and from this Web site. National Air and Space Museum Take your students on a cyberspace field trip to America's number one flight museum.