Mustangs Need One More Try for World Record

Posted on April 29, 2013

JoAnna De La Cruz – LRHS News

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – LRHS students unsuccessfully attempted a world record Friday, April 26 when engineering students launched an intricate mechanism that allowed for a giant paper airplane to fly up to record challenging height.

This project, which included a 10-foot balloon, a designed release mechanism and various tracking devices, was constructed mainly by third year Engineering classes.

The device was supposed to break a record made by a British team in 2010. As over a hundred students and local press watched, Engineering Teacher Quintin Jones supervised the release of the large helium balloon.

“Everyone was really excited,” said Jones. “It was a very cool project.”

For the crowd’s entertainment, the team also used a frisbee throwing robot and launched two high-powered rockets. All this was filmed by LRHS TV Production students.

LRHS sophomore Julia Harris was there with her homeroom and said, “It was fun to be part of something that would break world record. It was a lot of fun to watch.”

The final results of the paper airplane drop can’t be confirmed because the transmission was lost at around 70,000 feet and was not re-established until 18 minutes later. During that time, the balloon was already on its way down, making it impossible for the team to figure out at which height the device peaked.The video camera batteries ran out of power, so the project lacked the necessary data to confirm a breaking of the Guinness record.

“It could have gone better, but overall I think we did pretty well,” said Jones. “We will definitely try again with new improvements.”

He said most of the machinery is ready to go again. The school simply needs a few materials. The department is looking for donations in order to collect the $300 needed to complete the project.

“It took about three months last time because different students in different classes separately worked on it over time,” Jones said. “But if we could get the money, we could launch another in about two days.”

He said his students were excited to be part of the world-record effort. “They were really pumped. Everyone was tracking the balloon’s progress on their iPhones all day. I think that more students will want to get involved with the project when we attempt it again because it’s cool now.”