Whirly Flyer

Team Members:

Emily Broude (ebroude), Marshall Hoebing (mhoebing) ,  Alana Toy (amtoy)

Our team built a Whirly Flyer,  meant to be very light and able to fly around the room. This consisted of a cardboard skeleton, which was laser cut flat and assembled into a 3D structure, and an acrylic launcher, which was laser cut as well. We chose cardboard for the skeleton for its lightness, and acrylic for the launcher because of its strength. In order for the launcher to operate, we also used a variety of rubber bands.

 

 

Original sketch:

CAD files:

This image is part of the Solidworks assembly for the flyer’s skeleton, showing how the parts fit together. There were in total four arched spine pieces and six circles– two were added after this image was created to reinforce the center of the skeleton.

 

To the right are the two Solidworks parts used to laser cut the flyer’s launcher, which was built using acrylic and rubber bands in order to be able to send the flyer whirling across the room.