Volume 4, Number 3 July/August 1996
Hasbro, Inc., of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, has teamed with NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, to develop a new toy. Hasbro, known for its success with its polyethylene foam Nerf toy products, believed there was room in the market for a flying foam glider. The challenge was to design a toy glider that a child could fly without the knowledge of aeronautics.
Previous attempts at constructing foam toy gliders were unsuccessful. Hasbro therefore approached NASA by contacting the Center for Technology Commercialization, one of six NASA Regional Technology Transfer Centers. NASA established these centers to help U.S. firms access and acquire federally developed technologies.
The Regional Technology Transfer Center satellite office in Rhode Island linked the Hasbro designers with Langley Research Center because of Langley's expertise in aeronautical research and its proactive commercialization program (in Langley's Technology Applications Group).
The toy manufacturer specifically wanted assistance in improving the flying distances and loop-to-loop stunt of its prototype gliders. Gaudy Bezos-O'Connor, an experimental aerodynamicist by training and a technology transfer specialist whose market sector focus is the transportation industry, called Ray Whipple, a wind tunnel manager at Langley and aerodynamics specialist who tests models of fighter airplanes.
Making a Nerf foam object glide was a challenge. Whipple soon realized that additional skills were needed for this project-specifically experts in building model planes. Two model airplane specialists-Dave Robelin, a wind tunnel testing technician and Hewitt Phillips, an aerodynamics research engineer (both retirees from NASA Langley)-were brought into the project.
With the help of the Langley team of Bezos-O'Connor, Phillips, Robelin and Whipple-experts in experimental aerodynamics and model airplane design-the Hasbro toy designers received technical guidance and a hands-on tutorial on the physics of designing and flying gliders. The Hasbro designers learned where to best locate the wings on the gliders' fuselage and the proper angle for its tail surfaces. "Who knows better how to make things fly than NASA," said Todd W. Wise, Hasbro's senior design director.
Four Nerf gliders in total-two stunt and two long-distance-have hit the Walmart and K-mart stores retailing for between $7.99 and $10.99, depending on the model. These gliders are a unique product in the industry; for the first time ever, NERF will be able to fly and add a whole new dimension of play for kidsand adults-ages 6 to 60. These gliders fly and perform on the basis of their design (shape) and are propelled by throwing without having to modify any control surfaces or without the aid of a sling shot or other device.
The partnership formed between NASA and Hasbro is a "win-win" situation. Hasbro, through the products' performance, intends to be a dominant force in the glider market. In a competitive, multimillion dollar toy industry, Wise pointed out that being the leader in the design of toys is extremely important for maintaining an advantage in the toy industry. For NASA, the partnership represents how aeronautics technology can be applied to benefit the private sector. During the unveiling ceremony of the new toy, NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin stated that "our customers are the American people."
For more information, contact Gaudy Bezos-O'Connor at the Langley Research Center.
Phone: 804/864-5083, E-mail: bezos-o'connor@larc.nasa.gov
Please mention that you read about it in Innovation.
Curator: Joe Goldfus
