The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate how aircrafts have decreased the amount of time it takes to transport people and cargo. Students will compute the time it takes to travel between two cities for several modes of transportation including trucks, trains and airplanes. Students will also do some critical thinking to determine why airplanes are not always used.

The Uncommon Story: Notable North Carolinians is a local public television program presented by PBS NC. This series was produced with support from the NC Department of Natural & Cultural Resources. Katherine Stinson from Fuquay Varina was the first female mechanical engineer at NC State and the first female engineer hired by the Federal Aviation Administration. Date aired: 3/28/2023

The airplanes unit begins with a lesson on how airplanes create lift, which involves a discussion of air pressure and how wings use Bernoulli's principle to change air pressure. Next, students explore the other three forces acting on airplanes thrust, weight and drag. Following these lessons, students learn how airplanes are controlled and use paper airplanes to demonstrate these principles. The final lessons addresses societal and technological impacts that airplanes have had on our world. Students learn about different kinds of airplanes and then design and build their own balsa wood airplanes based on what they have learned.