The Tindell AirHack 1000
Super geeky dad Jonathan Tindell sends along this story of building something new and fun out of something broken:
We love anything Air Hog here in my house. We have dozens of helicopters and helicopters from them.
Any way, we have an air engine airplane that was a favorite of my youngest daughter. It got damaged to point where I couldn’t repair the HDPE body. Luckily, the engine and air reservoir were intact.
Well, my daughter came up with an idea to turn it into a rocket. We cobbled together some some old wings and horizontal stabilizers into tail fins that we attached to the bottom of the air reservoir. They also make a great launch pad.We found out that the engine doesn’t have enough power to do more than hover a few inches off the ground. But if you pick it up and toss it…. Well, a six year old can throw it about 50 feet!
We had fun making it and my daughter is learning that making things can be as exciting as playing with a new toy out if the box?
We couldn’t agree more, Jonathan! Thanks so much for sharing this with us. Happy flying!
Ken Denmead
Ken is a husband and father from the San Francisco Bay Area, where he works as civil engineer. He became the Publisher of GeekDad in 2007, and the owner in 2010. He also wrote the NYT bestselling GeekDad series of project books for parents and kids to share.
