This is a picture of our finished project.

The design works by having a dual motor system with propellers attached, when the motors powered by 9V batteries start moving the gear attached to the motor moves another gear which is attached to a metal rod that allows for the propellers to spin, thus hopefully generating flight, in our case we could only move it around it was not strong enough to provide enough lift.

The energy exchanges include the chemical potential energy from the batteries which is converted into electrical energy that powers the motors, which then generates kinetic energy as the propellers start going to create lift and ultimately flight. We utilized switches to allow for easier control over our design.

Overall, the design was pretty successful for something we did with limited materials and not much time, we did a good job of showing off energy transfer as most of our system is outside of our cardboard chassis anyways, and we made numerous improvements to my designed prototype from the feedback from our peers, it definitely turned out way better than if we had no feedback at all.

There are many improvements that we could have made, and some may have allowed for flight. Stronger motors that could spin faster may have allowed for flight as we just lacked that last bit of speed from the propellers before they could lift. Higher-volt batteries may have helped but the propeller design could have been better too if we had the propeller towards the end of the helicopter a bit higher it may have been able to push more air down and create more lift, as this design basically threw away a bunch of kinetic energy that the propellers were creating.

Our creation process was also not the best, we essentially wasted one class period on making a single motor/propeller system, there were definitely better ways to manage our time and honestly, if we were to do it again knowing all this and planning a bit ahead, we could definitely make a helicopter that achieves flight. Material management was also a problem because we should have sought out all our materials first, we ended up having to find materials in the middle of building and testing and wasted time doing so.

My product’s impact on the environment was minimal. Most of our electrical circuits were made of recyclable plastic or metal, the batteries were rechargeable and our main body was designed with only glue and cardboard. Potential customers for my product would have to be careful of using batteries with overly high wattage and have to be careful to dispose of used batteries. This product is directed toward hobbyists and people from 6-18 who are interested in understanding flight and how it works.

Create & Improve

February 21st: 

Today was technically not the first day for building but we had already begun testing materials, Mr. Michie had us draw out our plans for him and we received good feedback, we knew that the rotors would not be able to take much weight, and our main structure had to be stable enough for the motors to not shake while flying. Ultimately, the three of us went with a cardboard Chinook design.

February 23rd: 

We started building today because it is technically the “first day” for building, we picked out 3-6V motors and 6V batteries to test what would work, later we found a YouTube video with the exact same motor and they managed to attach a working propeller to it, all the materials that we need were right there in the design center to use. Using a pen head to secure a metal rod, the only other thing that is required to make it spin would be gears, so we got one smaller one attached to the motor and a larger one for the propeller, we are probably going to do quite a bit of 3D printing and laser cutting for the main body and supports.

February 27th:

It turns out that the little motor propeller thing was harder than we thought, the interior metal rod shakes because it does not perfectly fit into the pen head, and hot gluing the pen head onto the motor was a bad idea because one, the glue might melt, and two, because it moves so much the glue might not be strong enough, so we opted for this super slow drying adhesive (that sticks surprisingly well it’s as good as super glue). We didn’t use super glue because it just would not stick. We ended up finishing 1 propeller and started on the second one, and we are going to 3D print the propeller head, support, and also a little ring to secure the metal rod that spins the propeller. The laser-cutting file for our Chinook main body is also nearly complete.

March 1st:

The 3D-printed stuff and laser-cut cardboard are done, so that’s one less thing to worry about. We started to assemble the main body and kept the top part out so that we could fit in our two finished propellers, turns out that while our design can move, it doesn’t really fly, but it’s so close to flying. We made another set of wooden rotors hoping that it would provide enough air and lift to get us going, and we opted for an external battery system so the weight would be much lighter (180 grams lighter, the propellers were struggling to lift 30). The project is done and here is our finalized product (the side panel will be added later)

Peer feedback:

Mostly everyone – looks cool but can it really fly?

Mr. Michie – Said we should consider how to lessen the weight even more and maybe have better rotor position so that they can “scoop up” more air resulting in more lift

Michael – Recommended that we use stronger batteries because the Chinook can’t really have sustained flight anyways

Someone in the other class (I think it was Jonathan) – Said that we should have used stronger motors that spin much faster and only weigh slightly more (6V), which means that they could take more power.

New Plans:

Alright so we have decided to stick with the Chinook design because it was too cool to pass up, we decided instead of popsicle stick rotors we would stick with much more stable plastic ones that were in the design lab, and eventually we concluded that this design may have to be a one-time flight because the motors just could not handle 200 grams (around half a pound) of weight alone, so the batteries will most likely be a higher voltage and outside of the main body to provide even more lift. We are laser cutting the cardboard for more precise measurements and we have also abandoned the on/off switch so that we could lose a bit more weight from having a PCB in our helicopter.

This engineering project is to design, build, and refine a device that converts one form of energy into another form of energy while being designed with limited materials over a span of two weeks. I’m thinking of making a helicopter or quadcopter with Gavin and William who had the same idea as me. The design could be a CH-47 Chinook helicopter, a standard quadcopter drone, or a smaller but much more compact helicopter made out of a coke can + supports. (Examples below)

#1: Chinook

Pros

• It’s really cool despite being made of cardboard
• It looks structurally stable
• Does not require knowledge about PCBs
• Most materials required are probably available

Cons

• Despite being stable it might not fly due to carrying too much weight
• This is a 1-time flight, there is no proper way for us to reuse it without somehow making it crash
• It looks quite hard to assemble the propellers and main body

#2: Quadcopter:

Pros

• It’s probably the most stable out of all 3 of the designs I chose because it also has pole in the center to keep it anchored
• Very simple design with four DC motors and a few popsicle sticks
• I dig the minimalistic look (You can hide the wires too)

Cons

• There is also no way to really turn it off once it starts going, we’ll have to attach a string to it like a balloon to pull it down
• There’s no telling if it’s accidentally too strong and the pole in the middle just goes flying (obviously we can’t have it extend to the ceiling)

#3: Coke Copter:

Pros

• It’s so simple to assemble and looks really funny (oh the pranks you could pull)
• Overall very light for just one motor to handle

Cons

• This one actually requires a PCB to control in the air, we don’t have any programming software so managing that will be annoying

Hmmm what should I put here

Hello, this is a blog on the literary nonfiction book “Flowers in the Gutter” by K.R. Gaddy. This book covers the Bundische youth of Nazi Germany, mainly members of the Edelweiss pirates, who openly opposed the Nazi regime in any ways they could. From simply not participating in Nazi youth activities to eventually sabotaging German supply trains and bombing them. The many actions of the Edelweiss pirates show a theme of how life isn’t always fair, and that you need to resist what isn’t fair.

Hi, this is a book talk on the book “Ghost” by Jason Reynolds. The main character Ghost, was attacked with a gun by his father when he was only 7. Ghost is constantly running, from his past and literally. He learns to confront what troubles he had in the past and gets past his childhood trauma. The author believes that you have to confront your past fears and deal with them eventually, because they will catch up to you. This theme is subtly spread across the book but is very noticeable towards the end.

I am 80% humanist because I kind of agree with all of the 5 key aspects that I have listed. I completely agree with individualism and secularism as I believe that every individual should be able to release their potential to the fullest and governments or schools should not be controlled by religion and instead be fair for all as unbiased as possible. I kind of disagree with asking questions about the world and lay education, I believe that some questions never will be answered or shouldn’t be answered because of the nature of certain questions, such as the meaning of life and existence. Lay education isn’t the best nowadays and there are better, higher class alternatives for a low amount. Mainly because public schools have many issues including bullying, technology, and poverty. Some families can’t earn enough money to support their kids in school. And lastly, reviving ancient works is what I believe to be the biggest part of the early Renaissance, learning from our ancestors often benefits us humans as a whole because utilizing experience and ideas from old times we can build on them and flourish more. I definitely agree with the revival of ancient works.