ACROSPIRE - May I have the envelope, please?

[Fran Poodry]

Heh.  I know more than I want to about indoor free-flight aircraft powered
by rubber.  14-17 grams is indeed very massive for one of these planes--many
weigh the same as a penny and fly inside disused aircraft hangars for many
minutes.  They are tiny, beautiful, and insect-like.  Many old guys who
started building airplanes "back in the day" (sorry, that's one of my
favorite phrases and I had to use it) when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic
are still at it, with a few younger people also involved due to Science
Olympiad.  I had one such old guy give a guest lecture in my physics 2
classes last year--he is also a book illustrator, most famously of "The
Borrowers."  He is in his eighties.  He brought in many models, including an
ornithopter of his own design.
As far as I know, most of these planes are hand-built and individually
designed...no brand-names involved.
There are fewer collisions when all the planes fly the same direction in the
hangar.  I think the direction is generally counter-clockwise.
-Fran


On 10/19/05 7:24 PM, "Hutch" <hutch at bewellnet.com> wrote:

> acrospire n. A hobby airplane, weighing between 0.5 and
> 0.75 ounces, with a "pushing" propeller in the rear powered
> by twisted rubber and the rudder at the front. Usually
> built to fly in counter-clockwise fashion for times lasting
> more than 20 minutes.
> by Fran Poodry
> 3 points (1 for correct)
> 
> Jean-Joseph Coté: I used to be peripherally involved in
> this sort of model aircraft stuff, and I don't remember
> this word. 14-17 grams is pretty heavy for a rubber-powered
> plane, I think, and this sounds like a tricky thing to make
> work properly. Still, I give it two points because it's not
> really a high-breather, and the wording is odd enough to
> not look made-up.
> eLLioTT morEton: I might believe it if the word were
> capitalized, like a brand name, but ... no.
> Ranjit Bhatnagar: what do you call the clockwise ones?
> [Have to admit I was wondering that myself - Hutch]