Popular Woodworking 2009-12 № 180, страница 38

Here's the windup. "Beast" was one mean flying wing. Demonstrating that not only do you have to have a carefully made boomerang for success, but also good throwing form, Do H. Kim throws the boomerang he made. Notice the pinch grip as Do Kim prepares to release his boomerang into flight. Everyone would stop to watch when "Beast" was launched; it flew that well.

As with any object flying through the air, a boomerang is subject to drag its own weight as it makes its flight pattern. This drag slows the boomerang down, thereby limiting the flight time. However, given enough spin and initial velocity, the boomerang will circle above the thrower's head a few times before landing.

Choosing a Shape And a Material

Even if you don't fully understand how boomerangs work, you can still make one that flies quite well. There are a wide variety of plans available on the Internet (type in "boomerang plans" into any search engine). Or you can start with the scaled plans here or download full plans from the Popular Woodworking web site that you can print and adhere directly to the wood.

For your first boomerang, pick a simple design, which will be easy to make and throw. In other words, it is best not to pick a complex design that is for trick flying.

The traditional wood used by the aboriginal tribes of Australia to make boomerangs is

Plywood that flies. Boomerangs come in a surprising number of shapes. All of these versions fly. This article shows you how you can make your own flying wing with just a few hours of shop time.

Myall brigalow (Acacia harpophylla). According to George Simonds Boulger in his book "Wood: A Manual of the Natural History and Industrial Applications of the Timber of Commerce" (BiblioLife), this native wood is "brown, strongly violet-scented, very heavy, very hard, elastic, durable, splitting freely. Used for turnery, tobacco-pipes, vine-stakes, spears and boomerangs."

A practical, quality and easy-to-work-with material for this project is plywood. However, the plywood at the big box stores isn't a good choice. Boomerangs are essentially flying wings, and better grades of plywood are more durable. In fact some plywoods are engineered for flying projects.

When I teach high school physics students to build boomerangs, I prefer to use ¹ H"-thick Baltic birch or Finnish birch. Baltic birch costs less, but Finnish birch is lami

nated with waterproof glue so it can hold up better outdoors. The two plywoods are easy to tell apart. The glue lines for Baltic are similar in color to the wood. The waterproof glue used in Finnish birch is a dark chocolate color.

Rough Out Your Boomerang

Once you have your wood and a pattern, you'll need to gather the tools. You need some sort of saw that can cut curves, such as a band saw, coping saw or bowsaw. To smooth the shape and thin the edges ofyour boomerang you need files and sandpaper. A spindle sander is nice to have, but it is not required.

If you are going to make several boomerangs in one shape, I recommend you make a pattern. We use paper bags, poster board or thin plastic sheeting.

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