
DATE: Thursday, October 2, 1997             TAG: 9710020099

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY AKWELI PARKER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   97 lines

MUSEUM WILL DEMONSTRATE THE WONDRS OF FLIGHT NEW EXHIBIT MAKED PHYSICS EASIER FOR KIDS TO UNDERSTAND

TRY EXPLAINING to a kid in a Superman cape that he can't fly off the roof because of the laws of fluid dynamics and you might get a blank stare.

But fluid dynamics - a branch of physics that studies how objects move through liquids and gases - is precisely the subject of a new exhibit for kids opening Tuesday at the Virginia Air & Space Museum in Hampton.

``These are full-immersion exhibits,'' says Glenn Woodward, the center's exhibit director.

To keep kids' attention in an age of Nintendo and multimedia computers, museum exhibits these days have to be more than just something to stare at, Woodward says.

Contrived with technical help from nearby NASA-Langley Research Center, the museum's new displays seek to make the physics of flight understandable and, unlike the Superman experiment, injury-free.

For example, take the display ``Let It Soar.'' It looks at Bernoulli's Principle, the law that allows 250-ton airplanes to stay aloft.

It was first posited by Daniel Bernoulli, a Swiss mathematician in the 1700s.

As a mathematician, of course, Bernoulli had a complicated formula full of subscripts and weird characters to explain his theorem. But for simplicity's sake, let's just say it works something like this: the pressure of a fluid (which can be a liquid or a gas) decreases as its speed increases.

In other words, air moving over the curved upper surface of an airplane wing moves faster than the air blowing across the flat, lower surface. The result is less pressure on the upper surface, hence lift.

To see it in action in the display, the user presses a button to blow air over a set of table tennis balls encased in a clear plastic ``wing.'' With the air blowing over the wing, the balls are pulled toward the top of the wing as a result of the lower air pressure there.

``This is probably the best demonstration of Bernoulli's I've seen in a museum,'' Woodward said.

Still don't see the connection between physics and flight? Then try ``Feel the Lift,'' an exhibit where you slide your arms into a set of foam rubber airfoils, stand in front of a 22 mph fan and, well, ``feel the lift.''

After seeing the demo at the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh, Woodward decided to bring it to Hampton with a few improvements - gleaned while sticking a foam-winged arm out the window of his van while driving about 22 mph.

The new displays make up Phase 1 of a three-phase, $600,000 project

called ``Up, Up and Away! Those Magnificent Flying Machines.'' It's the first big exhibit that the center, open since April 1992, has done on its own.

Bankrolled by NASA's Langley Federal Credit Union, private donations and, possibly, a grant from the National Science Foundation, the exhibit will be finished in two years.

Phase 2 will focus on materials and manufacturing, allowing visitors to see what an airplane looks like on the inside and to check out what aircraft will look like in the future.

The last phase will focus on control and navigation. Visitors will ``fly'' in a simulator, see what it's like to be an air traffic controller by talking to landing and departing planes, and fly a model aircraft, the center says.

Timed to roughly coincide with the new flight exhibit is the IMAX movie ``The Magic of Flight,'' which opens at the museum today. The film takes viewers through the history of flight from the Wright brothers to a wild ride in an F/A-18 with the Navy's Blue Angels demonstration team.

The center plans to eventually make a copy of the exhibit and send it on tour - leasing it to other museums.

``It should be a money-maker,'' said Kim Hinson, a Virginia Air & Space Center spokeswoman. ``It gets your name out there, and it's another source for us to meet our operating goals.''

And with any luck, it'll be a source for inspiring future aerospace engineers.

``The main thing that we focus on is to encourage youth to study math and science,'' Hinson said. ``When it's fun, they learn more.''

``This is an exhibit we've wanted to do for a long time,'' said Karen Credeur, head of the office of public services at NASA-Langley Research Center.

The museum serves as the research facility's visitor center.

Credeur said the museum gives the research center ``a greater avenue to do more in aerospace education.''

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration sees its role as defending U.S. pre-eminence in aviation, but it can't happen if tomorrow's would-be engineers lack the requisite math and science.

``A lot of people are intimidated by technology and science,'' Credeur said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Bill Tiernan

Steve Wesen...

Graphic

WANT TO GO?

Admission to the Virginia Air & Space Center is $6 for adults; $5

for NASA, military and seniors; and $4 for children 3-11. Admission

plus one IMAX movie is $9 adult, $8 NASA/seniors/ military, $7 kids

3-11. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The center is at 600 Settlers Landing Road in Hampton.

For more information, call (757) 727-0900. On the Internet,

http://www.vasc.org