A 5-6 page APA compliant paper must be submitted which includes the following sections (use section headings per APA):
Goal: Describe the overall goal of the entire glider project; from paper 1 through the competition.
Requirements & Restrictions: Describe what is allowed and what is not allowed. Describe what is required of the glider.
Model Glider Information: This is the heart (and therefore should represent the majority of the paper) of the paper. Remember, this is a paper about the theory of model glider design, not full-scale glider design.
Model Glider Construction: Describe the materials and process of building a model glider.
As with any paper, you should start with an introduction and end with a conclusion.
The Glider Information section should include your research into gliding in general and balsa wood gliders in particular. The main topic of this paper should be model glider design theory.
While it may be appropriate to discuss full-scale glider design, the majority of the paper should focus on model glider design.
You should use this research opportunity to investigate what makes a successful long-range model glider. You do not have to present a specific design in the paper, only the research that will guide your preliminary design.
Included in the 5-6 pages should be a title page and references page (per the APA 7th edition manual). A minimum of three references are required, but more should be consulted in order to completely research the topic.
One deviation from the APA manual is the abstract (we will not include this section). Use this as an opportunity to collect as much useful information as you can to prepare you to design a successful glider.
This is a research paper, not a design paper. For example: you must research what stability is and how it influences glider design and flight.
Be sure that you are researching glider aerodynamics, not airplane. The last section is how you will build your glider, not the design of your glider. You want to discuss, type of wood, glue, materials, tools, process, etc.