advertisement

red line
SuperKids Software Review - The Parent's and Teacher's Guide to Childrens' Software
free newsletter! spacer tell a friend! spacer contests
spacer
software
  reviews
  bestseller list
  price survey
  what's new
  product support
  search
spacer
educational tools
  ask a scientist
  math worksheets
  vocabulary builders
  hangman
  iPhone/iPad apps
  logic games
  brain food
spacer
educational insights

feature articles
spacer
marketplace
  iPhone/iPad apps
  reading corner
  movie corner
spacer
SuperKids home
  about SuperKids
  advertise!
  humor
  links
  help
spacer
  * * *

Promotions




  * * *

spacer all reviews > > > other

Gliders by Design

Seeds Software

ages 12 to adult

Rating Scale
5 = great,    1 = poor
Educational Value
4.5
Kid Appeal
2.0
Ease of Use
3.0

Gliders by Design Screen Shot System Requirements

PC / Mac Price Survey

Product Support

Gliders by Design is a program laden with information for those with more than a casual interest in constructing foam, card stock or balsa wood gliders. Amateur builders learn about fundamental technical terms for different glider parts in the Design Guides and Glider Designer folders. Technical terms like nose mass, horizontal stabilizers, aft fuselage, and angle of incidence are defined here. Diagrams (top and side views) illustrate glider anatomy clearly. Another section devotes itself to a discussion of materials and tools, building directions, and ballast choices. The principles of lift (an explanation of the Bernoulli Principle as it relates to flight), trim (center of gravity, center of lift, tail), stability, material density, and glider dimension limitations are analyzed in Design Notes. An Activities file suggests experiments involving wing load, aspect ratio, tail size, glider control surfaces - AOI & AOA, elevators, rudders, ailerons, and rubber band powered flight.

After all this is digested a design computer will "build " your glider. Plug in the dimensions for the various parts of your virtual glider and it will give an estimated flight length and time aloft. Want to see what happens if you increase the wingspan or decrease the fuselage length without building the model? This program will tell you! A red "problem" button appears to warn you of potential design flaws and gives a brief explanation of ways to correct it. These numbers can quickly be changed and reconfigured and the simulated flight recalculated. They even show you an animate clip of its imaginary flight.

When finished, you can print out a copy of your design dimensions to refer to when constructing your actual test plane.

Educational Value
Gliders by Design is a concise, instructive program that covers basic scientific principles of flight design. Concepts are explained in a simple yet adequate manner. It demonstrates the simulated flight of the player's virtual craft and suggests experiments that show how changing the variables involved in aerodynamic design can impact its trajectory. There is a fair amount of information here and it takes time to digest it if one is beginning at ground zero. The good news is Gliders by Design will take you under its wing and guide you through the process.

Kid Appeal
Our young testers did not embrace Gliders by Design, probably because it is not as intuitive as folding a sheet of paper and tossing it into the air. The results are not that immediate and palpable -- it is not a program for the faint of heart. Teenagers and even adults who are willing to invest a little time are more likely to find this interesting, and appreciate its value.

Ease of Use / Install
No problems were encountered using Gliders by Design on our test computers. The program runs directly from the CD. However, it wasn't obvious exactly which folder should be opened first. Shuffling back and forth between folders and files with helpful design details when trying to construct a glider was awkward. It would be wise to print a hard copy of the "design notes", "build guide", and "review of concepts" segments for easy reference when trying to refine your various design models.

Best for... / Bottom-Line
Model airplane designers and builders will love this program. Motivated teenagers can use it without adult supervision. Concepts are clearly explained, however many kids may not have the perseverance to get that far. Gliders by Design would be excellent used in a teaching setting where an adult (teacher or parent) guides students through the different aspects of flight design with the fun hands-on experiments suggested. Even younger children could appreciate and understand the variables of flight when presented in this manner. It would be a fantastic science project. But lets face it, even if you only absorb a fraction of the concepts explained, it would be pretty gratifying to build a glider that didn't crash on impact on its maiden flight.

See SuperKids' Buyers Guide for current market prices of the PC and Mac versions of this program.

System Requirements
PC: Windows 95/98/NT 0 MB hard drive space, 8-16 MB RAM , 256-color monitor, 4x CD-ROM. .

Mac: MacOS 7.3 or later, 0 MB hard drive space, 10MB available RAM 256-color monitor, 4x CD-ROM.

Reviewed on:

  • PentiumIII-550 with 128MB and 32XCD
  • return to top of page



    Go to: About SuperKids Educational Software Review
    Questions or comments regarding this site? webmaster@superkids.com
    Copyright © 1998-2024 Knowledge Share LLC. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy