The Quest to Fly and Earning Our Wings

I can fly!

"There shall be wings! If the accomplishment be not for me, 'tis for some other. The spirit cannot die; and man who shall know all and shall have wings." ~Leonardo da Vinci

This dream of the seemingly impossible 

became a main idea in our study of inventions. 

Like Leonardo, we were on a quest to discover how to fly. 

We looked close up at a maple tree seed, a great example of biomimicry.

We watched how it "helicoptered" down. 

 

We made and launched our own helicopters, both at school and at the Boeing Museum of Flight. 

We looked at Leonardo's drawings. 

Leonardo studied birds and came up with this design of an ornithopter. 

Leonardo was way ahead of his time. 

No one knows for sure, but legend tells us that Leonardo's apprentice tried out his flying machine. 

We went with Jack and Annie and discovered even more about Leonardo.

We then studied the amazing Wright brothers and discovered how they discovered WING WARPING, the key to controlling an aircraft. The picture above is a replica of the Wright brothers' plane. 

Like Leonardo, they had learned about flying by watching birds. Click here to watch a video on wing warping. 

We had lots of fun in the Flight Zone.

We learned  that modern airplanes' ailerons, yaws, and elevators do the job of the wires to control today's airplanes. 

Through hands-on learning, we discovered the forces that affect flight.

How a plane is loaded makes a big difference, too.

We then got to see and even sit in a lot of planes. 

What a great collection of airplanes that show us the history of flight. 

We learned about going to the moon. 

We got to go into the NASA Space Shuttle full fuselage trainer. 

Just outside of Air Force One, we met President Nixon and Premier of China, Zhou Enlai.

 One of our dad's is an Alaska Airline pilot. 

We had tons of great questions for him and learned a whole lot more.

 

We even got our 737 pilot's wings!

QUEST ACCOMPLISHED - WE CAN FLY!

And we dream of someday becoming pilots and astronauts.

Perhaps one of us will fly to Mars and beyond!

This Navigator's body says, "Wow!"

We felt like we knew that guy up there. :) 

And this is how she draws and writes, "Wow!"