Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My child is working on a science fair project. She wants to build a solar powered rc model airplane. She is having difficulty developing a question that can be tested. For example one idea she had is to have different wing designs to accommodate more or less solar panels. What could she test though?

I don't know if it would be possible to test speed or maybe endurance. How could she systematically get that data? I am trying to help her brainstorm.

Would this be better as an engineering design project. It could be something about building a solar powered model airplane to reduce the use of electricity or other fuels that most rc airplanes use.

She did an engineering design project last year, but even though it is allowed at the science fair some judges did not understand and gave her negative feedback for not having the traditional hypothesis and questions of the scientific method on her board. She is worried about having that same problem again.

Any ideas are appreciated. Thank you.
Hope

Hi - my first thought in replying to this is that if engineering design projects are allowed by the fair, but the judges apparently aren't aware of that or don't know what the engineering design process is, that's a problem the fair organizers need to address. Not sure if that's something you could ask them to clarify in advance of the fair?

As to what you could test - it depends on what type of data you are able to collect reliably. It seems like you could test endurance if you can keep a consistent flight pattern (e.g. flying in circles) and measure how long the plane can stay in the air. To test speed, you might be able to time how long it takes to go a fixed distance, like across a soccer field.

I don't think you can really say either way whether it would be "better" as an engineering design project - many projects work for both methods. Hope this helps!

Ben