Crafty kids: Sweet little airplane
Celebrate National Aviation Week with this simple candy craft.
ORVILLE and Wilbur Wright could hardly have imagined the heights aviation would soar after they built the first successful airplane more than 100 years ago.
The brothers built and tested their heavier-than-air machine on Dec. 17, 1903, near Kitty Hawk, N.C. The plane flew 120 feet and was in the air 12 seconds.
It took only 54 more years for the Soviet Union to launch the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, into space. A year later, the U.S. followed with Explorer I.
The first human space flight was accomplished on April 12, 1961, by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, to be followed by several space flights carrying humans farther into space than the Wright brothers could have dreamed possible.
But in 1990, one of the most important space missions ever to be undertaken was the launching of the Hubble Space Telescope. Over the past two decades, Hubble has sent back more than 30,000 images of never-before-seen objects, each one helping scientists at NASA and the European Space Agency piece the puzzle together to help understand the world outside our solar system.
National Aviation Week (Aug. 15-21) is a observation that celebrates aviation. National Aviation Day was established in 1939 by President Franklin Roosevelt to fall each year on the anniversary of Orville Wright's birthday, Aug. 19.
In honor of National Aviation Week, build a sweet little candy aircraft that resembles the Wright brothers' contributions to aviation with these directions I found at spoonful.com/crafts/candy-airplane.
Supplies you will need
* Thin rubber band
* Peppermint Life Savers
* Roll of Smarties candy
* Stick of gum
* Small stickers
How to make it
Thread the rubber band through the holes of two Life Savers, then balance the roll of Smarties between them, across the rubber band.
For wings, balance the stick of gum on top, perpendicular to the Smarties, and pull the rubber band up and over each side of the gum to hold it all in place.
Decorate the wings with tiny stickers.
Tip: If smaller fingers are having trouble with all that balancing and stretching, have one person hold the candy in place while another works the rubber band up and over the gum.