My partner and I are creating a balsa wood glider for the MESA competition in Hayward. We created simulated versions of our planes with a program called whitebox learning. There we ad-gust different variables like wing surface area, mass, wing diehedral, horizontal stabilizer diehedral, and vertical stabilizer offset. In the end the only variables that had a major effect was the wing surface area and the mass. increasing the wing surface area help the glider fly farther manly because the lager wing is able to pick up more lift and decreasing the mass also makes the plan fly farther because less the weight will need less lift to carry it.
For more on my data click here.
In the graph above we used mass vs. flight time what I conclude from the testing of the mass is that when the plane's mass is increased the flight time of the glider will decrease.
we decided to use my plane design because it is more simple to build, looks more durable and it has a greater flight time.
The Complete Glider
MESA Day
Mesa day was extremely exciting and fun i got to participate in two competition the team math quest and the glider flight. There were many other schools attending the competition everyone was hyped the campus was relay big there was food and raffles that offered CSUEB wear, i pads and other electronics, one of my friend won a cap. The Glider competition was fun there were many plain designs from small to extremely large my plain flew a couple of second but went far, it impressed many people and was fun. For more of the experience bellow are some pictures and videos of the event.