Rubber Band Airplanes

As a young boy, I envied the birds, they could fly!! I cannot tell you how many rubber band airplanes I bought at the dime store (OK, it was a long time ago and that was what they were called.) Those rubber band airplanes came in a cellophane bag and generally contained a rubber band, 3 pieces of very thin balsa wood, 1 thick piece of balsa, and a propeller and a pin.one piece of balsa wood was for the wing, another for the fuselage. You inserted the wing through a slot in the fuselage being very careful not to break the wing. You then inserted the remaining pieces of balsa into slots in the back end of the thicker piece of balsa, one of these being the vertical stabilizer and the other being the elevator. Next, you attached the rubber band to the propeller and the fuselage balsa via a couple of pins. That was it, you wound up the propeller and rubber band and let go while holding the rubber band airplane up in the air. It flew.Now watch how it is done: