From moss Fri Sep 18 14:43:45 1992 From: [email protected] (Larry Moss) Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1992 14:43:45 EDT X-Mailer: Mail User's Shell (7.2.1 12/20/90) To: [email protected] Subject: airplane Status: OR It's been a while since I've posted anything, but no one else has either. Maybe this will stir things up? This summer I definitely fell in love with large sculptures. Here's one that I've been meaning to write up for a while. I'm feeling frustrated enough with work right now that this seems like a great time to do it. If anyone else has any other large sculptures, please post them, or at least ideas or books that they can be found in. This is a very simple thing to make. It just won't be very easy to draw. The airplane requires 4 260's. Fill the first balloon, leaving about a 3-inch tail. The second balloon should be filled almost completely. We want this to be as long as possible, but it should be soft enough at the ends to make a couple of twists. What I do is wrap 2 fingers around the nozzle end of the balloon as I blow it up so that there's a little unfilled area in the balloon. (there are other techniques for getting the balloon to start filling in sections other than right at the nozzle. Anyone care to explain a favorite method?). I then leave about the same amount of space at the tail end of the balloon. The balloons now get twisted together at their centers. That is not the center of the inflated portion. that's the center of the balloon. Find the center by folding the balloon in half so that the ends meet. balloon 1 (with 3 inch tail): _____________ center -> / ____________) \__________)=== balloon 2 (with space at each end): __________ center -> / _________)= \__________)= result: /\ | | |2 | | | _______| |_____ (___1____><______)== ^ | | ^ | | | | A | | B | | \/ In the above picture, points A and B mark the next twist. The scale is off quite abit though. That twist should be about 4 inches from the center twist. The loop formed by twisting those pieces together is where the wings will be slid in later. I'm not sure I can draw the rest of this with ASCII characters so I'll just draw a diagram showing where the twists will go. Numbers in the following picture refer to a section of balloon. Sections 1 and 2 are from balloon 1. Sections 3 and 4 are from balloon 2. Letters are where twists will go. /\ | | | | <-- C E | | | |3 | V | | ___________| |_________ (_______1____><____2_____)== ^ | | ^ | | | | A |4 | B | | | | <-- D | | \/ At this point A and B should already be twisted together. Sections 1, 3 and 4 should be twisted together at C, D, and E. E should be about 2 inches from the end of section 1. 3 and 4 shoudl extend a couple of inches further than 1 since there was more air in that balloon to begin with. In other words, the section of balloon from teh center to points C, D, and E should be the same length. Hmm, maybe I will try this: ________________ (______3_________\ _(__1_=(_5_)(_2_| (______4_________/ ^ | C,D,E That looks real confusing since sections 2 and 5 overlap on 1 in tis picture. 5 is the remaining portion of 2 after it gets twisted into 1 (above). Those 3 long bubbles form the body of the plane. __ ____________ (7_)(__3_________\ (6)(1_=(_5_)(_2_| (8_)(__4_________/ ^ | C,D,E To help you get oriented, 6 is the tail fin. 7 and 8 are tail wings. Here's the reason you left air at the ends of the balloon. I like to fold 7 and 8 over to form better looking wings (basically ear twists). Bubble 5 will be used to form struts and wheels. Do a pop twist with that section. That's one large bubble (~3 inches), 3 small bubbles, another large bubble and twisst back into the start of section 5. Section 5 blown up: __ <-- points A and B from earlier / \ / /\ \ \/ \/ (_)__(_) <-- ear twist these bubbles (__) <-- pop this one now all you're missing is the wings and propeller. Wings are easy. Take one 260 filled almost completely, leaving only enough of a tail to be able to tie it to the nozzle. Fold it, but don't twist anything so that it looks like the following. ________________________ / ______________________ \ \__________)(____________/ ^ | This is where it's tied together. Slide that into the only logical place for it on the body of the plane. That's just forward of the struts in the small loop formed by one of your early twists. the knot on the wings should be facing the back of the plane. All structural components of the body of the plane should be above the wings (only section 2 should be below it and holding it in place). To make it look a bit better, bend the wings upward at the ends. I basically roll the wings around the top of the plane and almost into each other so that when I let go they have kind of an upward curl to them. (Gives it kind of a Satruday morning cartoon look). The propeller is as simple as the wings. Fill the last balloon forming about a 10 inche bubble. Tie the nozzle to the base of the tail. Then twist the round bubble in half forming two round bubble. \ \o <-- nozzle and tail get tied together. / \ ( () ) \__/ ^ | twist down the middle Attach this to the front of the plane with the remaining tail. I won't try to explain how to tie it on. As always, let me know if anything needs clarification. Larry