Frank's Report On Planes

Just awesome.  I am struck dumb by the enormity of it all. And you should hear him do the presentation.

Frank G.
Third Grade, Room 13

Planes
    Flight has been dreamed of for many centuries. Most old flights were when a person got into a flimsy glider and jumped from a high tower. The basic property of gliders is that they have no engine. Another kind of glider is tied to a powered airplane, and when they are high enough it falls away and glides to the ground.
    One kind of plane with an engine is the propeller plane. One kind of propeller engine is the rotary engine which was linked directly to the propeller so when the propeller spun, the whole engine spun. Radial engines are linked to the inside of a plane instead of the propeller. Propeller engines are also called piston engines. Most light aircraft today are propeller planes.
    But when Germany built the first jet plane, the HE 178, people could make much faster planes. A jet engine works by sucking air in the intake, squeezed by going through the compressor blades, then fuel burns to make the air expand, then it shoots out the back which powers the plane forward and turns the turbine which is linked to the compressor blades so that they could turn. Almost all planes today use jet engines.
    Just 4 years after the Wright Brothers first flight a aircraft rose into the air. It had an engine but it but it did not move forward. It was the first helicopter. A helicopter has a propeller engine which is facing up so that it could take off vertically. Most rescue aircraft today are helicopters.
    Lift is what makes aircraft go up. Lift works by air moving over a curved wing. When the air on the top of the wing moves faster it creates less pressure on the wing and with less pressure the airplane can fly.

Richard Platt, Flight, DK Experience series, Dorling Kindersley, 2006
Ian Graham, Aircraft, Smart Apple Media, 2007

Frank-planes2