Fun at National Building Museum

On Sunday, we headed down to the National Building Museum to watch the DC Maxecuters demonstrate their rubber band-powered airplanes. They have a variety of styles, but most are built out of balsa wood and tissue paper, and powered by long rubber bands. They twist them up and let them go in the main hall of the Building Museum. After a series of test flights and adjustments, the competition begins to see whose plane can stay aloft the longest. The planes are designed to slowly climb in a spiraling motion, and then slowly descend as the rubber bands unwind. Here are some pictures of the planes and their owners from last year's competition. We've been a couple of times before, and Jake's loved watching them go round in circles, but this time, Jake wanted his own plane so he could participate. Luckily, the gift shop had a little glider that he had fun throwing around.

But he quickly realized that his little glider didn't have a rubber band or propeller and couldn't fly for more than a few seconds. I may have to try my hand at building one of those planes - for Jake, of course. Stay tuned....

More pictures here.