Year 5 Flying the Airship

Mr. Correy’s class had fun flying the solar airship on a cold but sunny day.

We talked about why it flies: the material is black, so it heats up very quickly. This heats up the air inside and the hot air rises, making the airship rise with it. Also, the material is very thin – as thin as a hair apparently – and this means that it is light enough to fly. We agreed that normal plastic bags would be too heavy although they can be the right colour. We will test that when we get the right weather.

The airship needs a sunny day to fly – the air inside the ship doesn’t get hot enough otherwise – but it also needs to be very still to prevent the airship being blown into trees.