YORKLEY Primary School pupils had an exciting flying visit from three Airbus graduates, who challenged them to build paper aeroplanes that would fly the length of the school hall.

There were four different plane designs to make, and the children were encouraged to launch their planes and evaluate their performance, thinking about the four forces that affect flying – lift, drag, thrust and weight.

They were also asked to discuss how the designs could be modified to avoid a nose dive or a swing to left or right. They needed to decide whether the wings needed to be larger or smaller.

The aim of the session was to encourage children to think about things that they see and use every day and apply scientific solutions to improve them.

"It was great fun for both the current graduate technicians and the future technicians currently in Years 5 and 6!" said a school spokesman.