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Make your aerofoil fly

Discover how wings really work - and make your own fly!

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You’ll need

  • Paper drinking straws
  • A4 card
  • Rulers
  • Sticky tape
  • Scissors
  • Wooden skewers
  • Sticky tack
  • Lightweight items for testing (such as an inflated balloon, leaves, feathers, tissues, ping pong ball)
  • Full toilet paper roll
  • Hairdryer

Before you begin 

  • Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. There’s also more guidance to help you carry out your risk assessment including examples.
  • Make sure all young people and adults involved in the activity know how to take part safely.
  • Make sure you’ll have enough adult helpers. You may need some parents and carers to help.   

Running this activity 

  1. Gather everyone together and explain that you’re going to find out about plane wings. 
  2. Explain that the shape of a wing is called an aerofoil. It looks like a teardrop with a long curved edge on top and a short flatter edge on the bottom. Air flows faster over the top edge, creating low air pressure. When there's a difference in air pressure between the top and bottom of the wing, it sucks the plane upwards, creating lift. (Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)

Find out how lift works using your breath

  1. Place a strip of toilet paper flat in front of you.
  2. Blow gently across the top of the toilet paper. Watch what happens!
  3. Try blowing harder and see if it lifts more.
  4. Think about how your breathing helps create moving air — your lungs are powerful tools! 
  5. When you blow across the top of the toilet paper, the air moves quickly above it. Fast-moving air has lower pressure. The air underneath the toilet paper has higher pressure than the air above. This higher pressure pushes the toilet paper up into the air. The harder you blow, the faster the air moves, and the higher the toilet paper lifts. Your breath works like a mini air pump that helps the toilet paper rise.

Try testing different shapes

  1. When early aviators the Wright Brothers started experimenting with designs, their first wings were short and stubby. After tests failed to generate as much lift as they'd hoped, they went back to the drawing board. Eventually they found that a wing which was long and narrow was better for flying, generating much more lift and less drag. Their calculations were so effective that modern designs haven't strayed too far from those early sketches. (Source: BBC Bitesize, 2025)
  2. Now you're going to explore how different shapes react to air and how they lift.
  3. Collect a variety of lightweight items: an inflated balloon, leaves, feathers, tissues, or other soft materials.
  4. Take each item and hold it over a hairdryer or fan, one at a time.
  5. Watch how each object behaves in the stream of air.
  6. Compare what happens. Which shapes stay in the air longer? Which ones are more stable? Which fall quickly?
  7. An aerofoil (like an aeroplane wing) has a special shape. It’s curved on top and flatter underneath. This shape makes the air move faster over the top and slower underneath. The difference in speed creates a difference in pressure: lower pressure on top and higher pressure underneath. This pressure difference creates lift, pushing the wing upwards, as we saw with the toilet paper. Aeroplane wings are designed this way so they can generate lift and stay in the air. Flat or round shapes don’t do this as well, which is why they fall faster or wobble more.

Make an aerofoil (wing shape) 

  1. On a piece of card, draw a rectangle that’s 15cm long and 12cm wide.
  2. From the top corner, measure 6cm down and draw a line straight across the card. This splits the rectangle into two parts.
  3. Cut out the rectangle along the outer edges.
  4. On one of the short sides (12cm), find the centre (6cm) and mark a small dot 2cm down from that point. This mark will help you later.
  5. Fold the card along the line you drew in step 2. The 2cm mark should be on the outside of the fold.
  6. Use tape to seal the open edge closed. You should now have one flat edge and one curved edge, just like an aeroplane wing (aerofoil).
  7. Place something soft like a folded cloth underneath to protect your surface.
  8. At the 2cm mark, carefully make a hole through both sides using something sharp (ask an adult for help).
  9. Use a pencil to gently widen the hole by pushing it through.
  10. Push a paper straw through the hole. Leave about 1cm sticking out on both sides. Trim it if needed. Use tape to keep the straw in place.
  11. Stick a blob of plasticine or tack on a table. Push a skewer vertically into the plasticine and carefully cut off sharp ends if needed.
  12. Slide the straw (with your aerofoil) onto the skewer.
  13. Make sure the flat edge touches the table and the aerofoil is slightly tilted.
  14. Test it by using a hairdryer to blow air across the curved side. Watch the aerofoil lift!
  15. Finally, try stalling the wings:
  1. The angle of attack is the angle between the wing and the airflow.
  2. Blow air over the aerofoil like before.
  3. Slowly tilt the front edge up into the air stream.
  4. At first, the wing should lift more.
  5. But if you tilt it too far, it will stop lifting and fall back down—this is called a stall.
  6. Try again and see how small changes in angle affect how the wing lifts.

A stall occurs when a wing suddenly loses lift and can no longer keep the plane in the air. The most common cause is when the angle becomes too steep. If the wing tilts too high into the airflow, the smooth flow of air over the top of the wing is disrupted and becomes turbulent. This stops the pressure difference from forming properly and greatly reduces lift. As a result, the aircraft may suddenly drop or lose altitude. 

Reflection

This activity was all about exploring how different shapes and airflow can create lift, helping us understand the basic science behind how aeroplane wings work.   

  • How did you find making and testing your aerofoil? 
  • What did you notice about how different shapes behaved in the air? 
  • What surprised you about how the hairdryer or your breath affected the objects? 
  • If you did the activity again, what would you do differently? 
  • How do you think this relates to real aeroplane flight and the idea of stall? 

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You must run your activities in line with the Safeguarding Code of Conduct for Adults (Yellow Card) and report any concerns to the UK HQ Safeguarding Team.

Science

Supervise young people, and only do science activities that are advised and age appropriate for your section. Test activities first, to make sure you’re confident you can lead them safely. Use protective clothing where necessary.

Scissors

Supervise young people appropriately when they’re using scissors. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Sharp objects

Teach young people how to use sharp objects safely. Supervise them appropriately throughout. Store all sharp objects securely, out of the reach of young people.

Electrical equipment

Inspect cables for any damage before each use. A responsible adult should supervise people using equipment, and people should follow instructions on how to use them correctly and safely. They should be properly maintained and stored. Be extra cautious of trailing cables and water when using electric equipment.

  • To make it easier, use a hairdryer and lighter materials (such as tissue paper or feathers) to help show the lift more clearly. 
  • To make it harder, challenge everyone to test different angles of attack on the aerofoil to explore when it stalls and loses lift.
  • Some people might find scissors tricky to use. Make sure to provide scissors that everyone can manage (such as left-handed, tabletop, loop or easy-grip scissors). People can also tear instead of cutting. You could have some pre-cut materials ready too.
  • Make sure everyone has enough time to try the activity more than once. Have plenty of adults around to help. You could run the activity over a few sessions and have other tasks ready for anyone who finishes early, so everyone can go at their own speed.
  • Make sure all actions and equipment is accessible for everyone. Set up the space so everyone can move around and reach what they need. For example, place hairdryers on a table instead of the floor for those who find bending hard, or use battery-operated fans or straws as lower-effort alternatives for creating airflow. 
  • If someone’s sensitive to loud noises, such as the hairdryer, people could wear ear defenders or set up a quiet zone for breaks. Running the activity outside or in a larger space can also help lower noise levels. You could keep the noisy activities, such as hairdryers or fans, to one area or room. 

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Air Activities Stage 3

If you enjoyed this activity, try our Drag it, lift it, thrust it, weigh it activity.