WHITTLE A PROP-UP

Image Gallery

You and your young'uns (or grand young'uns) will enjoy this easy-to-make propeller toy.

By Harry Sherrill

Way back in 1920 — when I was but a whippersnapper and aviation was just entering its adolescence — one of the now legendary "barnstormers" flew a World War I surplus biplane (a model officially called the JN4, but more affectionately known as the "Jenny") above the one-block-long downtown section of our small Oklahoma town. Then he leveled off the aircraft and eased the man-made bird onto a nearby pasture.

Airplanes were real novelties in those days, and by the time I arrived at the landing site, the pilot had already collected a good bit of cash from the more affluent (and braver) members of the community for rides in the flying machine. Being up in neither bucks nor courage, however, I was content merely to study the plane from a distance. I was fascinated with the propeller, and after some close inspection I decided to construct my own "aircraft" . . . modeled on that curved blade.

My first propeller toy — or prop-up, as I call it — was just rough-whittled out of a piece of scrap lumber, but it shot straight up in the air for a good 50 feet when "launched"! In fact, I use the same design today to make the old-fashioned homemade "helicopters" ... because the toy is simple to build, it's constructed from readily available items, and — most important — it works!

All you'll need to fashion this easy-to-put-together hand-hewn rocket are a piece of lightweight wood, a pocketknife, a cylindrical wooden rod roughly the thickness of a pencil, some glue, and a marker. As you can see in the drawing, the toy is made up of only two glue-assembled parts: a propeller blade and a launching stick.