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Blue sky thinking

As a team, design the aircraft of your dreams. Show it to others, and appreciate their creations too.

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You’ll need

  • Pens or pencils
  • A4 paper

Prepare to design

  1. Split into small groups. Give each group some pens and pencils, and a piece of paper.
  2. Everyone in the group should work together to design an aircraft they’d like to fly in. It doesn’t have to work in real life – this is a chance to get imaginative.

Design

It’s up to you how you use this list of things to think about. People can go through it step by step, use it to get ideas, or not use it at all.

  • How many people can it carry? Is it a single seater, can it carry hundreds or thousands of people, or is it somewhere in between?
  • How does it fly? Maybe it uses hot air, jets, propellers, or trained seagulls.
  • Does it need a pilot? Does anyone else work on board?
  • How high can it fly? As tall as a big skyscraper, in the clouds, or on the edge of space?
  • What special features does it have? Can it put out fires? Does it have lights? Is there a swimming pool on board?
  • What does it look like from the outside? Does it look big or small? Is it bigger on the inside? What shape is it? How about colours?
  • Does it have a name?

Show others

  1. Once all of the groups have finished their drawings, everyone should gather back together.
  2. Groups should take it in turns to show everyone else their aircraft. What’s exciting and special about it? Why would you like to fly in it?

Reflection

This activity gave you an opportunity to be a team player. Did your team work well together? Was it tricky to work towards one shared goal, rather than all doing your own thing? Did you have different roles, or did you all do a bit of drawing and labelling? Did different people choose different things about the aircraft, or did you talk about everything and come to a team decision? What did you do when people disagreed?

This activity also helped you to develop skills. Why do you think it’s important to be able to work in a team? When else do you have to communicate and make decisions with other people? Do you think it’s important to have chances to use your imagination and be creative? What other skills (such as drawing) did you use in this activity?

Safety

All activities must be safely managed. You must complete a thorough risk assessment and take appropriate steps to reduce risk. Use the safety checklist to help you plan and risk assess your activity. Always get approval for the activity, and have suitable supervision and an InTouch process.

You could also cut up pictures of real aircraft to make a collage, or make a model (for example, from clean recycling).

Anyone who struggles with communication or working in a group could work in a smaller group, or design their own aircraft to show to a smaller group of others.

All Scout activities should be inclusive and accessible.

Air Activities Stage 1

If you make a model of your aircraft, this activity would count as one of the activities you need to do to earn the Beavers Creative Activity Badge or Cubs Artist Activity Badge.