Science Museum - Paper Plane Launcher

This item was a stocking filler for my son who is 9 now and during the long cold weekend we dug it out of the christmas present box.

Man am I glad that we did! Not only did the product require building therefore keeping the husband and both children happy, it was simple and easy to use! Husband managed to build it quite well in spite of him being (by his own admission) a klutz at DIY: indeed, so inspired was my darling hero that he fixed the curtain rail in number one sons room and put up the new tie backs in the kitchen! Job sorted.

However, I digress, having opened the box and sighed at the building job after two cups of tea and a little bit of swearing the job was done. Then began the full afternoon of paper aeroplane folding! Excellent fun and lots of modifications were made to otherwise unassuming aircraft.

If you have children and a willing partner this is hours of fun for all (and if you are the wife of said family you can manage to sort out the Sunday roast).

Can't say any more.

Karen

This was one of several toys, including three "Science Museum"-branded gadgets, that we bought for a flight-themed "Science Weekend" with my nephews aged 5, 8 and 10. At £10.99, it was the most expensive, but was the only one from this range that was worth the money. Although the product description claims it is for "14 years and up", it was ideal for our kids, although they needed some supervision and help with assembly.

The launcher is powered by AA batteries (not included) and demonstrates principles of energy transfer and aerodynamics. It is mounted on a plastic board that is held steady by suction cups. The front suction cup can be mounted in different positions to alter the launch angle. The launcher consists of two small motors that turn rubber discs that are aligned such that you can just fit the fuselage of a paper plane between them. As you push the plane through, the rubber discs grip and shoot the plane off the front at high speed.

Not all designs of paper plane work with this launcher - they need a fuselage that extends beneath the wings to engage the discs. It'd be worth preparing for using the launcher, either by buying a book on paper aircraft design, or by looking at some of the many websites devoted to the subject.

The kids loved playing with this, and came back to it repeatedly over the weekend. I'm sure we will use it again. Unlike some science toys, it would be tricky to make a homemade version of this, unless you had a bit of know-how, and parts from a specialist store.

So far, so good. However, I felt that the toy was let down by attention to detail. The suction cups weren't very good, and had to be attached to an exceptionally smooth surface (we used a glass chopping board). The front suction cup leg screws through the launcher at a point where it fouls the plane's exit trajectory, so we couldn't fix it properly - instead we let the launcher balance on it, which is not very stable. And while you should theoretically be able to launch planes at different angles, the suction cups only work at the lowest angle. The launcher has only one speed - it would be more educational if you could test the effects of launching planes at different speeds. The motors do not cut out if left running, so most of our 'supervision' consisted of reminding the kids to turn it off when they weren't using it.

Overall though, this is a fun and unusual toy, enjoyed by both children and adults. Despite its flaws, this was the only Science Museum toy that we were pleased with.

I bought a book of paper airplanes to compliment this educational toy. You do need a fine screw driver to be able to put it together, but it does what it says on the box.