Bi-Plane Ornament

December 15, 2024

Bi-Plane Ornament

Calling our Aviation geek friends!

Want to make a little bi-plane ornament?

All you need are:

Hot glue

Hot Glue Gun

Markers or paints

Popsicle sticks

A bead

String

A clothespin

If you have half-size popsicle sticks, it's great to have 3 half-size and 2 full size sticks for this design.

Color your Popsicle sticks and clothespin as you want. Our girl chose orange sticks to go with her orange bead, and a plain clothespin.

Make a loop with your string and tie it off.

Pinch the clothespin and put a string through. Then get out your hot glue and attach your wings and horizontal stabilizers to the clothespin. The wings go towards the the front - make sure they do not interfere with the propeller that will be at the tip of your clothespin. For your propeller you will need your bead and a half Popsicle stick.

For a propeller that does not move, you can just glue the bead to the middle of the propeller, then glue the propeller to your clothespin with glue.

Want to make a spinning propeller? With a sharp pin or nail, poke a hole in the middle of your propeller Popsicle stick. Then poke your pin / nail through the bead and Popsicle stick so your pin head / nail head are on the outside of the bead. Glue the pin / nail on the inside of the clothes pin so it remains stationary. The propeller should spin freely.

You can talk about the parts of an airplane as you build this craft. Your clothespin is the fuselage. There are two wings, one propeller, a nose cone (bead) and two horizontal stabilizers on this aircraft. This design does not have a vertical stabilizer nor a rudder. It would be very difficult for this ornament to fly or glide, and it certainly could not steer without a rudder. Oops. But it sure is fun for a decoration!

Our girl drew this sketch of the craft, a side view and a top view.