Aeroscale Series

Aerolution Series

Aeroscale Series is a range of gliders that celebrate the designs of famous aircraft. These are used by Aviation organisations such as Shuttleworth Collection for Educational activities at air-shows or for school /Scouts/ Airscouts visits and camps.  These have proved great fun and very popular with the visitors. Visitors can see the real thing in the hangar and in the sky and then make a flying model glider of the plane they saw. These models look surprisingly realistic when painted with acrylic paints

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Aerolution Series is the underpinning of our Aeroschool Uk 'Launchpad' curriculum. Each aspect of flight is strategically explained in a separate glider so that by the end of the series the student has a good grasp of why what parts of aircraft do what they do.

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T&S Aerolution Series seeks to take the learner on a journey in which they explore flight through a series of inexpensive cardboard gliders that fly in response to adjustments that the learner makes to them. These are not regarded as 'planes' to begin with - we refer to them as the lifting surface and the stabiliser. This avoids assumptions that tend to confuse things.

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The 'Launchpad' series is very much mobile and we can bring it to your school or HE group. The gliders are relatively inexpensive and designed for customisation and repair. They are well tested and fly as they are required to. 

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The key investment in all of our glider products is the Gravity launcher which not only facilitates a uniform and directional gentle launch it keeps the activity in a relatively restricted space and so is ideal for large rooms but not necessarily hangars. This is music to the ears of Aviation organisations who's covered space is very limited and heavily controlled.

What makes a product 'educational'?

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Progress

An educational product is designed to move a learner to greater knowledge capability or experience.

Key to educational resources is the need to interact with the resource in a linear way so that inputs and outputs are tangible, measurable and repeatedly demonstrable. There are very few truly educational products in Aeromodelling that unequivocally demonstrate the basic principles of flight other than on a TV screen or diagram. In fact much of flight theory when delivered by experts is really very confusing.

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Sequential

As with many aspects of science its important not to confuse with too much detail.  Likewise In our curriculum we don't introduce 'power' for some time mainly because power masks many aspects of flight and is so difficult to control and calibrate.  Gravity on the other hand is a constant, its what powers  glider and incidentally its what launched the Wright Brothers Aircraft. Neither do we refer to the 'Bernoulli' principle of lift gained by a curved surface. For one thing  it's much less significant than Newton's 3rd Law which we cover early on. Besides, many experts still argue over what actually makes a plane fly!! And many planes seem to contradict the theory. So we go with what can be demonstrably proven.

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Engagement

Gliders are universally engaging. They just are. For centuries people have made and flown paper gliders. Its a mystery that we do well to make use of. Unlike when cooking a meal or growing a plant one does not really expect a glider to fly first time. We kind of understand that it will take a few throws to achieve level flight. But after a few throws many will give up because they have lost the glider or its become damaged or their efforts to correct its flight are thwarted by bad luck. Its a popular thing but we need to control 'failure' better than this. Hence our Gravity Launcher

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Investment

Key to this process is the launch process; which few other educational products deal with effectively. Our gravity launcher is key to this resource and if you are an educator we ask you to consider where you will make your greatest investment - the gliders or the launcher? Ask any aviator the same question. 

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Gravity Launcher

Our launcher is designed to launch gliders safely and consistently in a relatively small space such as a small village hall or conference room - not a hangar.  It ensures that gliders go where they are meant to,  after which they are then safely caught by a mesh screen. 

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ASD - attention to detail

We know that children love flying gliders but without a controlled launch this actually leads to frustration and disengagement rather than learning. Children with ADHD and ASD will often be dismissive of systems that fail to provide an output commensurate with the input. Basically this means that they give up trying. And why not? Why take time to finely adjust a glider that is then launched haphazardly?  It's important that when comparing two airframes they are adjusted to weigh the same - or have the same wing area. A simple thing but essential for scientific process. This 'process' leads eventually to national championships such as the BMFA Payload Challenges and on to careers in engineering.

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Aero in schools

Aeromodelling has not been taken up by schools because of its haphazard risk and predictability.  Its association with fiddly bits of wood and tissue have given way to various styrene or Depron gliders but few if any that can be modified and customised by design.  Our series are all designed to be customisable and reconfigured to taste! Spare parts come with each set so that some learners can make many versions of their ideas without fear of breaking the bank. Cardboard is also very much more eco friendly.

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Flight /service envelope

Our launcher gives direct proportional results and once a glider has been accurately tuned for level flight and long distance. This gives children confidence that their understanding is key to making a plane fly and that 'luck' plays very little part in it.

Its great fun to modify a glider to perform stunts by changing the balance, trim surfaces or even launching backwards!!

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Videos

Click the links to see videos of sessions. These range from edited presentations to raw footage so don't expect a polished production! These are part of our ongoing curriculum development to ensure that our programs of study do what they say in the tin. 

All of these can be used for CREST awards but more importantly they reinforce the ability to learn by trial and error which is central to true learning and very much avoided in assessment based learning contexts.

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