Model plane built by pupils back in Orono after space trip

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ORONO – A package from outer space put a smile on Richard Glueck’s face when it arrived earlier this week by FedEx.

The sixth-grade science teacher at Orono Middle School beamed as he talked about the contents of the package – a replica of the 1903 Wright brothers’ Flyer that was built by a small group of his students approximately four years ago.

“That’s the little plane that has traveled several, I don’t know how many, million miles,” Glueck said.

The model, which can glide, was built by four students as part of the Centennial of Flight in 2003. Since then, it has spent two years orbiting the Earth as a passenger at the International Space Station.

“We’re really delighted that of all the schools in all the United States, this was the one that was allowed to participate,” Glueck said. “It’s a remarkable little bit of space history that came out of Orono.”

The students worked on the model as part of an after-school project and sent a “ground” model to NASA before being selected to build a final replica that was taken to the space station.

The students then had three or four weeks to create the model that originally was supposed to be delivered to the space station on a U.S. shuttle.

“We were under the gun,” James Berry, 17, of Orono said. Berry, now a senior at Orono High School, was one of the four students who worked on the model plane.

He plans to attend college to become an architect and credits the experiences he had in Glueck’s class as having an impact on his career choice.

“Being able to send something up into space was just amazing for me,” Berry said. “I mean, who gets a chance to do that?”

Each year, Glueck’s students build airplane or spacecraft models as part of a lesson on aviation.

“We try to work engineering and mathematics into the science program, and at the same time try to explain to them why things fly,” Glueck said.

The students use mechanical drawing, construction and mathematics principles throughout the project.

The 1903 Wright Flyer model was used by astronaut Ed Lu and others at the space station to teach children, by satellite video, about outer space, technology, and how far we’ve come since the Wright brothers’ time.

A copy of one of Lu’s lessons also was included in the package Glueck received from NASA.

The model plane is made of balsa wood with coffee stirrers for ribs, Ripstop nylon for its outer shell, and is held together with Elmer’s glue.

“It had to meet very tight parameters,” in terms of flammability, weight and size, Glueck said.

The model originally was supposed to go to the space station on a U.S. mission, but after the space shuttle Columbia broke up over Texas while re-entering the atmosphere, NASA suspended all missions.

The model ended up being taken to the space station by a Russian shuttle and Glueck believes it was brought back to Earth by the space shuttle Discovery.

While that model remains nestled in the Styrofoam box that NASA made to transport it into space, other replicas that students have made over the years are hung from the ceiling by pieces of white string.

“All of these have been built by students, and all of them work to some degree,” Glueck said.

Glueck’s classroom once was described by the superintendent as more of a museum than a classroom.

Gesturing to a corner near the classroom door, Glueck pointed out a chest that contains two Apollo-style space suits.

Nearby are autographed pictures of NASA astronauts.

“In the front of the room, you see the Hindenburg coming together,” Glueck said.

On a back counter, goldfish swim in a tank, next to a smaller one containing zebra fish that Glueck’s students are scheduled to breed and observe next month.

A beaver pellet, cow’s hip bone, simulated Mars soil, and tree slices are tucked on shelves like bits of treasure.

“I love teaching the kids to do things they previously thought were impossible,” Glueck said.

Taking nothing, like coffee stirrers, and turning it into something, like a model plane, shows students what is possible, he explained.

“In doing that, then I guess I’m doing my job,” Glueck said. “The moment of discovery, there is nothing that a teacher thrives on more than the moment of discovery when some kids suddenly say, ‘Oh, this is cool.'”