jet engines and powered flyers- Lesson 11

Manna Moment- Freedom from fear

Deuteronomy 31:8-
"The LORD Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.  Do not be afraid; Do not be discouraged."

After the Wright Brothers were able to control flight in a glider, they then aded an engine.  They had to build their own engine too.  Then they had to fly with this homemade engine.  If engines malfunction, explosions and loss of life can occur.  This is scary.  However, when we put our trust in Jesus, our Savior, we no longer need to fear death- we have been freed from every fear on earth.  We now only need to fear God, the Creator of this world who made all the laws that govern it.  He tells the Israelites in Deuteronomy to not be afraid for He has gone before them and He will be with them.  If you have confessed and repented from your sin, accepted Jesus as your Savior, then Jesus too, will go before you, preparing the path you are to travel.  He will be with you as you travel so you do not need to fear.
Should the LORD call you to do something that has never been done, be assured He has already been there to prepare the way.  If you find yourself in a difficult situation, God was in it and there before you got to it AND He is with you through it.  Orville Wright climbed into that homemade airplane, engine, wings, propeller and all.  I do not know whether He trusted the LORD yet if he didn't and he still made the decision to try it, how much more confident can we be to trust an all- knowing God with our lives and future.

the wright catapult

The Wright brothers found a place closer to home to test their Wright Flyers.  Huffman's Prairie was located near the trolley stop and was a perfect location.  They were allowed to use the land with permission.  One of the differences between this area and Kitty Hawk was the lack of wind speed.  The Flyer needed to get up to 27mph or a minimum flying speed in order to take off.  Since the prairie was not smooth and the wind changed directions so frequently, they built a Wright Catapult that would give the Wright Flyers enough thrust to get them into the air without having to wait on the wind.
To find out more about this Wright Catapult, here is a great website with detailed pictures and information.
Now that all the pieces of the Wright Flyer were there, they now had to learn how to fly and control all three axes of motion using the controls they invented.  They had numerous crashes in 1905 learning how to control the Flyer in the air.
Eventually, they were able to fly 24.5 miles in 39 minutes and it was at this point they were confident that they had invented "the world's first power driven, heavier-than-air machine in which man made free, controlled and sustained flight.."

Jet engines and Balloon Racers

The jet engines that we use today use fans to pull air through the front of the engine.  Fuel is released into the engine and is ignited.  The heat from ignition causes the air to expand and push out of the back of the  engine creating thrust.  This moving air forces the plane forward.
When you see streams of 'clouds' in the sky following a plane, these are called contrails and they happen when the hot humid air from the engine meets the cooler air of the sky.

During class, we did a balloon racer investigation.
Our guiding question was 'how does the amount of air in the balloon affect the speed of the balloon racer?
The students made their hypothesis and then we built and tested our racers.  Would the balloon move faster or slower with more air? 

​The way we chose to measure the amount of air within the balloon was using a flexible measuring tape that a seamstress would use to measure a waist for a dress.  After they inflated their balloon, the students would measure the circumference and then document the time and distance.  Using those numbers they would divide the distance by the time to calculate the speed of the balloon.
We did as many trials as we could in order to test our hypothesis.