It has been a late fall for us. September and even early October gave us June weather, and with the long dry spell, the leaves have been slow in changing.

Now however some color is coming, and I am starting to see the winged seeds on the ground that maple trees give off. I can never get them to spin as well as they should, but they remind me of the paper helicopters we used to make that do spin easily.

The design on the left (click it for an enlarged view) is for a simple paper helicopter that can be made at any size. All that is required is:

• Paper
• Scissors
• Paperclip

You will be cutting along the solid lines, and folding at the dotted lines.
Fold flap A forward and flap B to the back. These will be the rotor blades.
Fold flap C and D forward along the dotted lines.
Flap E folds upward: Secure it at the bottom with the paper clip. Finished, it should resemble the line drawing above.

That’s all it takes! You can drop the helicopter down a stairway, or throw it up and watch it fall. I haven’t tried this, but I would think that a series of broad lines colored on the blades would create an optical illusion as the helicopter spins, much like the design on a spinning top.

Experiment with the size of the model, and the weight of the paper used, to come up with the ultimate flyer.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 21st, 2005 at 10:04 am and is filed under Games & Activities. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.