Many guys, when young, played with balsa wood gliders – you know, the kind that came in the plastic sleeve, and you slid the wing into the fuselage, slipped the weight onto the nose, and threw it into your brother’s face.
The more advanced (and more expensive) ones had a little propeller on the front instead of a weight and a rubber band that drove it when wound up tight. Same result – either really neat or really short flights – as before, just faster.
So, trying to recapture that feeling, this guy did this:
From Engadget:
For Mark Clews, however, those flat packed crafts weren’t exhilarating enough. The 24-year old bloke spent six whole months building a "life-sized edition" to the same exact specifications as the kits he adored as a wee boy. The aircraft boasted a 20-foot wingspan, was 15-feet in length, and was constructed with a slightly tougher wood than balsa. However, his engineering (and physics) skills weren’t nearly as sharp as those carpentry ones, as he expected "an enormous rubberband" wound countless times around the propeller to launch the plane into flight. Unsurprisingly, the craft jolted forward a meager five feet, and "even backwards" on another attempt, rendering his project a failure. In an presumed attempt to alert others of how not to get airborne, his impressive (albeit permanently grounded) creation will be on display at the Learn to Fly expo next month in London.
Another person now famous, but not for the original reason….
