SCIENCE CONCEPT:
- Commercial airplanes can be defined as privately owned
airplanes in the business of providing a service to the general public.
Most commercial airplanes are specially designed to carry passengers
and/or cargo from one location to another. Almost everyone in the world
today has either seen or used the services of commercial airplanes. The
public uses these airplanes to travel swiftly for a variety of purposes
ranging from business to vacationing.
STUDENT OBJECTIVE:
- The student will create along with his/her classmates
the inside of a commercial airplane and take on the roles of the
different airline crew and ground crew members.
OVERVIEW:
- In this activity, the students will recreate the inside of a
commercial airplane by rearranging the chairs in the classroom. After
the chairs and tables have been placed in the "proper" positioning for
the interior of the cabin of the commercial aircraft, the students will
take on the roles of the various members of the airline crew and ground
crew. The 'crew' will then have trips across the United States and
overseas, including graphs of the flight patterns and air miles accrued.
TEACHER TEXT:
- Commercial airplanes are used by businesses to also ship their
products around the world. There are thousands of airports throughout
the world and tens of thousands of commercial airplanes in service. In
fact, the commercial airline industry has grown from a few planes to that
of a multi-billion dollar industry in less than 90 years.
Commercial aviation dates back to 1910 and has evolved over the
years from early "primitive" machines to that of today's modern
supersonic transport planes. On June 22, 1910 the first regular
passenger-carrying airship service was inaugurated. Between 1910 - 1914
aviation in general skyrocketed. Passenger carrying soon became an
everyday event, night flying, seaplane flying, shipboard take-off and
landings, long distance flying, airmail, parachuting and the formation of
national air forces were all born during this period. The ability,
however, of airplanes to carry cargo drove the development of commercial
airplanes at this time.
By 1918 the United States Post Office had established an airmail
service that ran between New York and Washington. By 1920 this same
service extended from coast to coast. In 1919 the first sustained
scheduled daily passenger air service started in Germany. France soon
followed with the first sustained scheduled daily international service
started between London and Paris. This feat was accomplished by
Britain's Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd. and set new standards of
punctuality and regularity.
While the carriage of mail was the driving force in early
commercial air transport, the area of passenger travel soon supplied most
of the progress and development of commercial aviation. By 1945 the
Douglas DC-7, the Lockheed Super Constellation and the Boeing 377
Stratocruiser could each carry about 100 passengers nonstop from New York
City to Paris at speeds exceeding 300 miles per hour. Engineers in Great
Britain produced the world's first large commercial jet airliner, the de
Havilland Comet. In 1958 the Boeing 707 began passenger service between
the United States and Europe. By 1960 the McDonnell Douglas DC-8 and the
Convair 880 had begun passenger service as U.S. jet transports. The
1960's also saw world air traffic quadruple leading to the advent of
wide-bodied jet airliners, popularly known as jumbo jets. The world's
first commercial jumbo jet, the Boeing 747, began service in 1970
carrying more than 400 passengers. Newer versions of the Boeing 747
carry fewer passengers but can travel longer distances without refueling.
Other notable jumbo jets of this period were the 270 seat Douglas DC-10,
the Lockheed L 1011 trijets and the 240 seat European Airbus.
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PREPARATION TIME:
- 15-20 minutes.
LESSON TIME:
- 2 day project - 30 - 45 minutes each day.
TEACHER PREP:
- Gather library books on commercial airplanes having
photographs and descriptions of the interiors of commercial aircraft.
WORDS TO KNOW: (words are included for all 3 age group levels)
- commercial
- cargo
- international flights
- wide-bodied
- jet airliners
- navigation
- air traffic controller
- air tower
- seat belts
- oxygen masks
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