Reprinted from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune - Friday, August 7, 1998

A Wing and a Prayer

Teens Work to make airplane fly on time

By Catherine K. Enders – Correspondent

San Bernardino — Allen Lin stood atop a ladder holding the rear of a 25-foot-tall plane on Thursday and asked how many 3-pound sandbags it would take him to balance the tail and wings and make the pedal-powered plane fly.

His teammates from Los Altos High School in Hacienda Heights decided the 17-year-old's question couldn't be answered until they straightened the plane's tail, which was slightly crooked.

Such scenes have played out all week under the blazing sun at San Bernardino International Airport, where 40 students and recent graduates from Los Altos – who once raced a solar car in a competition – now find themselves in a race against time.

The students have until Sunday to get the plane off the ground before they must remove it from the hangar they are borrowing.

If they fail, they will have to take the plane apart and start over elsewhere in the fall.

“Most people waste their summers," said Lin. "if this were to fly, then I would feel I accomplished something. You feel special when you do something first."

If all goes as planned, they will roll the 46-foot-long and 96-foot-wide plane onto the runway. Gale hale of san Marino, a gym teacher and avid cyclist, will climb into the cockpit and pedal as if sheer were in competition.

The plane will then sail 6 feet off the ground and travel at least 100 yards at 10 mph, qualifying it as truly flying.

With those goals in mind, the team on Thursday worked in groups of three students each, assembling the wings and adjusting the pilot's seat — all in heat that topped 110 degrees on the tarmac.

"This place motivates me," said Michael Ni, 18, of Hacienda Heights, the team leader, as he stared at a 747. "You've got a big plane in front of you and it makes you feel like you have purpose. A bigger sense of urgency."

The students learned Thursday that the insurance from their sponsor — La Puente Valley Regional Occupational Program (ROP) — would not cover a student pilot and that an adult would have to power it.

They solved that problem by recruiting Hale, but then found problems with their design and had to reconstruct parts of the plane.

They remounted aluminum pipes that were too long and untwisted cables needed to secure parts to the frame, a roughly half-day setback.

"We're not giving up, we've already gone this far," said 16-year-old team member Joyce Chen, as she helped adjust the height of the pilot's seat.

"The kids have learned a lot about how to work as a team and think on their feet when problems arise," said Bob Franz, the school's engineering and manufacturing technology teacher.

"Every time something goes wrong, they build on that." The student's attempt began as part of a manufacturing technology elective course for sophomores, junior and seniors. To build Grasshopper, the students also worked as fundraisers, and collected over $8,000 in donations from local corporations.

Then after their manufacturing classes ended for the summer June 17, the students spent about eight hours a day, six days a week in the school's engineering lab manufacturing parts of the plane and preparing for their week in the hangar to assemble it.

All in all, the students estimated they have worked 15,000 hours. Paul MacCready, a Monrovia resident and a pioneer in human-powered aircraft who has advised the students inspired the project.

Franz's high school teams have been successful on other projects.

In 1996, the school's solar vehicle team was the only team from a U.S. school to cross the finish line of the Solar Challenge, a race in Australia.

On May 30, the team won Solar BikeRayce USA in Topeka, Kansas. with a solar-powered three-wheel vehicle.

The one thing that makes each project work is the seemingly limitless enthusiasm of the students, Franz said.

"The kids become crazy and so enthusiastic about each project," he said. "It just snowballs from there."