I was in charge of the AAPT Apparatus Competition this year in San
Antonio, and have put the entire competition on the web
(descriptions, sketches, parts costs, pictures, and pictures of some
folks too). This includes this year's winners, and is available via
my home page (below).
Two of the entries by Bill Franklin relate to the physics of air
movement, and so have something (at least vaguely) with the physics
of flight.
On the page showing pictures of apparatus, the 3rd prize picture
shows a cart with a flat plate, and another with a plate is is curved
at the edge, like a dinner plate or a pie plate. When the air stream
is directed toward this plate, the stream is deflected back away from
the curved edge of the plate. In this picture the air would
'rebound' to the right, and the cart would travel to the left.
Reversing the direction of the plate reverses the motion of the cart.
Further down in the pictures you will find Bill's Magnus effect
demonstrator, in which a rotating two-liter pop bottle on a cart
shows this effect. [Point a fan at the rotating bottle, and the cart
moves sideways, due to the Magnus effect.]
Mike
Mike Moloney, Dept of Physics & Applied Optics, Rose-Hulman Institute
of Technology