Collapsible Toy Airplane Spring Steel Wing Coiling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing toy airplanes lack the ability to be nondestructively and repeatedly reconfigured between storage and use configurations, limiting their portability and storage capabilities while maintaining structural integrity for play and potential flight.
Innovation Solution
A collapsible toy airplane design featuring a fuselage and wing sections made from spring materials with an arcuate cross-section, allowing for coiling and uncoiling, and a sheath of flexible material for aerodynamic performance, along with adjustable tip and nose members for balance, enabling easy reconfiguration without tools.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If rigid materials like plastic or balsa wood are used for fuselage and wings, then structural integrity and rigidity are maintained during play and flight, but the airplane cannot be collapsed or reconfigured for storage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by using spring material that can transition between rigid and flexible states. The spring material maintains rigidity when extended to provide structural integrity during flight, but becomes flexible when coiled to enable compact storage. This dynamic parameter change resolves the contradiction between maintaining strength and enabling reconfigurability.
2Strength
If the airplane is designed with fixed rigid structure, then it maintains structural integrity for flight, but storage and transportation require space corresponding to full airplane dimensions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the fuselage and wing spars flexible rather than fixed rigid structures. The spring material allows the airplane to dynamically change its configuration from an extended flight mode with full structural integrity to a coiled storage mode that minimizes volume. This dynamic flexibility resolves the contradiction between maintaining strength and reducing storage space.
3Volume of moving object
If paper airplane is collapsed for storage, then space is reduced, but the airplane structure is destroyed and becomes unusable
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by using spring material that can reversibly change its physical state between coiled and extended configurations without permanent deformation. Unlike paper that collapses and destroys the structure, the spring material maintains its elastic properties through repeated cycling, enabling the airplane to be compacted for storage while preserving full reusability and structural integrity.
4Ease of operation
If knockdown frame structures with separable parts are used, then portability is improved, but the fuselage and wings remain rigid and storage capabilities are still limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies flexible shells and thin films by using spring material that forms a continuous flexible structure rather than rigid separable parts. The flexible fuselage and wing spars can be coiled together into a compact configuration, providing superior storage capabilities compared to rigid knockdown structures while maintaining ease of assembly and portability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design allows for a compact storage configuration while maintaining rigidity for play and flight, enabling automatic deployment upon release, and improved aerodynamic performance through dihedral angles and flexible materials.
Implementation Method 1
a fuselage and wing sections made from spring materials with an arcuate cross-section, allowing for coiling and uncoiling
Data Source
AI summary
A collapsible toy airplane reconfigurable between storage and use configurations. At least one spar member forms first and second wings and is coupled to a fuselage. The main body member and the at least one spar are formed from spring steel with an arcuate cross section whereby they can be reconfigured from a straight, substantially rigid disposition to a coiled configuration. A sheath of flexible material envelops the at least one spar member. The at least one spar member can be pivotable from a use configuration forming the first and second wings to a collapsed configuration substantially in-line with the main body member. The wings can be formed from first and second spar members, each pivotally coupled to the main body portion and each adjustable from a use configuration disposed at a dihedral angle to a collapsed, in-line configuration.