"It's a Bird, It's a . . . , It's Flying!"
Duck! It's Superman, swooping down from the sky! Or, is that Peter Pan? Well, whatever it is, it's flying - or at least it looks like it's flying! Moviemakers use specialized machines to allow actors or models to "fly." You can make your own system to simulate flight.
- You will need: a broom with a long handle, two chairs, an action figure or a stuffed animal, rubber bands, heavy fishing line or string, a plastic lid (like from a coffee can), a paper punch, drinking straws, a spool or two, tape, and scissors.
- Suspend the broom handle between the two chairs (see illustration). This will hold your flight system.
- Using the rubber bands and string, create a harness for your flying figure. Experiment until your figure hangs in the position you desire.
- Is your figure balanced in the harness? Congratulations, you've discovered its center of gravity. But it may not be in the center! Why did you put the harness where you did?
- Punch holes in the plastic lid. Using string, connect the flying figure to the lid so it hangs below the lid.
- Design a system that will connect the plastic lid to a single string-the main cable.
- Now be creative. Spools and pieces of drinking straws can be used to build a path for the main cable to follow. You want to be able to control the figure out of the view of the camera. Can you design a way to raise and lower the figure?
- Can you design a way to turn the figure? And what about moving the action figure across the scene?
- Would you like to fly? If you were the one in the harness, what would you want to know about the design of the flying apparatus?
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