Our April speaker was Lawrence Doan, owner and designer of Whistle Pig Toys. Lawrence is a UW grad in Aeronautical Engineering with years of experience in aviation and competitive glider competition. Lawrence, along with his daughter, decided to start a boutique toy company selling balsa gliders that he has designed. Wrapped up in all of this fun is a great learning experience for both youth and adults including construction techniques, weight and balance and trimming for flight characteristics. Lawrence gave a very interesting talk about the details of the engineering process involved in the design of his gliders. Currently Whistle Pig Toys has almost a dozen different designs available for purchase and more coming. Go to whistlepigtoys.com to check them out.
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