National Waterways Museum

The Greenhouse, Plymouth

DJW worked closely with project designers Brennan & Whalley to create interactive and multimedia experiences for the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovil, Somerset. The museum's new gallery the 'Physics of Flight', contains four large wind tunnels each demonstrating the different aspects involved in the Physics of Flight.

Each interactive shows a cockpit-eye-view of the plane and demonstates how moving particular control surfaces affect the aircraft in flight. Animations on screen were developed to mimic the movement of the model plane in the wind tunnels.

The wind tunnels were designed to demonstrate the four aspects involved in the aerodynamic control of aircraft - namely Ailerons, Elevators, Rudders and Lift & Airflow. By touching the on-screen controls in this demonstration visitors will see how an aircraft will pitch when elevators on the aircraft's tail are raised and lowered.

The aircraft on the screen moves in time with the model in the wind tunnel to show the aircraft turning from left to right. Animations show in detail how the movement of the aircraft is affected by moving different control surfaces.

DJW were also asked to produce eight interactive information points to illustrate the different types of aircraft within the galleries. Kiosks were designed specifically for each aircraft. These included Bristol Scout, Concorde, Fairey Delta II, Hawker Hunter, Hawker P1127, HP115, Sea Harrierand the Westland Wyvern.

Macromedia Director software was used to design and produce an interactive game 'The Four Forces of Flight' showing the visitor how to build their own plane! Following a short animation about how planes can fly, the visitor is asked to piece together an aircraft of their own by choosing from a selection of wings, engines and body parts.

DJW Mini Interactive: Physics of Flight
This is a scaled down version of the actual interactive which is on display in the Fleet Air Arm Museum.

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