Materials for the project were gleaned from stuff lying around Nathan’s home in Anchor Point. Their choice in wing covering departed from the Wrights’ plans, however.
“We had ours covered in Tyvek. They (the Wright brothers) had a French fabric,” Nathan said.
Other changes made by the students included deletion of a foot-operated steering mechanism originally installed by the Wright brothers for use by the individual “piloting” the glider. Several other modifications were made by the students to simplify the project.
“Our version is like a high school presentation, and theirs was the actual glider,” Nathan said.
Tyvek was the most expensive portion of the project, with the students paying an estimated $80 for the material. In addition, they paid for the diesel needed to heat the garage in which they spent Thanksgiving weekend and one additional weekend constructing the craft. While the trio worked, family members brought them food.
Friday, the threesome presented their project to the class.
“Stephen did an outline on the Wright brothers’ lives and Hunter helped with that,” Nathan said. “I did an outline on the construction of the plane, how the Wright brothers built it, and then showed how we did it.”
Also on Friday, Stephen’s father helped transport the glider to school where the boys hoped to hang it from the commons ceiling.
After reevaluating the strength of the glider’s frame, including its 17-foot wingspan, a length exceeding 11 feet and a width of more than four feet, it was decided to prop the glider up at the end of the commons area, where it can be seen close up.
What did Nathan, Stephen and Hunter get for their work?
“A+ of course,” Nathan said.
And what happens to the glider next?
“We’re thinking it would be fun to try to fly it, if we can find some runners and tow it behind a snowmachine,” Nathan said. “We might just do it for the heck of it, to mess around.”
“We actually didn’t know we were going to build it at first,” Nathan Kinney said. “We just thought it would be cool to do something on the Wright brothers, but once we decided that, then we thought why not build the glider. It was kind of spur of the moment.”
We encourage you to add your comments. To prevent spam, comments with links are manually approved during the normal business day. Please be respectful of others with your comments, bear in mind anyone in the community may be reading your comments.
