| Types of boomerangs | |
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Styles of Boomerang
You might like to try some different styles of boomerangs to get different sorts of flights. Any shape is possible in theory, for instance at least on collection consists of all the letters of the alphabet! Nothing is set in stone when it comes to boomerang shapes, there are no hard and fast rules, just a few trends / general principals. However there are certain broad groups that can be described as a starting point. These could be listed as follows ...
These are described in a bit of detail below. All the following designs would typically be made from 4 to 6mm, with denser plastics used at 3mm. MTA's use thinner material -3mm wood or 2mm bakelite. A two bladed design, with around 80 to 120 degrees between the arms. Typical aerofoil shape, especially near the tips, but with less wood removed from the profile near the elbow for a more symmetrical section in this area. These tend to be a larger style, with 30 to 50 cm between the wing tips. A good type of boomerang to start with, as they are guaranteed to behave something like a boomerang. This is because the longer arms mean that the tips of the arms (the parts that do most of the ‘important work’ in bringing the boomerang back) are moving through the air nice and fast even if the thrower does not impart much spin. Getting the boomerang to spin fast is important, but a style of throw that that takes some practice. The tips of the arms are often ‘under cut’ to give extra lift, this reduces the range, but allows the boomerang to climb higher and hover down slower. A typical flight path for such a boomerang might look like the one shown below... This type of boomerang is quite a ‘safe returner’. The boomerang is usually thrown spinning with an overarm chop, so that is spinning vertically or nearly vertically (i.e. the lay over angle is small), but it quite soon lays over so that it is spinning horizontally when it gets back. It returns spinning like the blades of a helicopter, so that it hovers down slowly, giving plenty of time for a catch. This can be a problem in high wind because :a) the boomerang may climb too high, and b) the slow hover down lets it get blown too far down wind. Also this type may take a throw with a very vertical chop, which is quite a different throw for beginners. All round though, a good design for a first boomerang that isn’t going to be thrown in windy weather. This is just a name for a boomerang that has some improvements on the classic design. It has a fairly typical aerofoil section at the tips, with less wood removed nearer the elbow. The differences are... 
The flight path is pretty much similar to the classic style, but further ‘improvements’ can be made by reducing the amount of lift that the ‘lifting’ arm gives. [See Tuning] Although still a two blader, the Omega boomerang is quite a lot different from either the ‘Classic Australian’ or the ‘Modern Two Blader’ It is essentially a circular arc with two aerofoils sticking out at either end. The diameter of this boomerang is about the same as a plate. The aerofoils have a typical profile / cross section, whilst the arc that makes up the majority of the material simply has its edges rounded or bevelled to reduce drag. This style of boomerang features…
Somewhat similar in shape to the Omegas are these monsters. This style of boomerang is used for purely for long distance with no thought for catching. Above is shown a Volker Behrens challenger design came from the ‘Be Aggressive’ Internet page. A British thrower of great renowned, the late Herb Smith pioneered this style, and his work was acknowledged as the inspiration for the Volker Behrens’ Challengers. This style of boomerang has held many long distance records with distances up to 150 metres. If you go to any long distance event, this style will still abound, but now are being largley superceded by the smaller lighter "quirls"
Typically made from denser materials, such as phenolic resin and then with extra weights added too.These are mean and dangerous boomerangs that typically need an abandoned air field to be thrown with any safety.This style of boomerang is thrown with loads of layover, almost flat. They are often aimed low (even downwards) but climb very high when they reached a good distance, and thunder home.
If you want the full facts on distance boomerangs, visit the fantastic B_Aggressive web pages, maintained by Swiss distance enthusiasts Tibor and Lorenz This style of boomerang is designed to get back as fast as possible and still be caught. The idea is to get 5 catches as quick as possible (World record around 15 seconds!) or to get as many catches in 5 minutes as possible, for a boomerang that goes 20 metres. Throwing a boomerang harder doesn’t make it go much further, just faster, but unless the design can handle a hard throw, it climbs too high and drifts over your head as it comes back and circles round again. The way these boomerangs cope with this, is to have much less tendency to layover than ot One of the important things with this type of boomerang is to get the range as close as possible to 20 metres for the shortest (hence fastest) throw that counts in competition. The other factor with these rangs is to have quite a bit of drag, by roughening the surface, putting tape flaps that stick up above the surface, or drilling holes near the tips. Again this style can use a fairly standard aerofoil section for the tips of the arms, but generally with less material removed in forming the section. Some designs scoop material from the underside near the tips. Typically, this is another three bladed design – again three (or more) blades makes a catch more likely. The objective of trick catch is to do fancy catches, under the leg etc, so multi blades makes sense. Trick catch boomerangs are often soft plastic such as poly propylene, but can be thin phenolic resin (2mm) for a high flight and a slow hover down.. Some have holes near the tips to slow down the spin on return and drop fairly vertically after initially climbing high. In designing 'doubling' boomerangs which must both be caught after being thrown at the same time, a separation in landing time of 5 seconds is desirable, but hard to achieve. This design is meant to hover in the air for as long as possible after climbing high. A good time is 30 seconds, but over a minute and a half has been achieved. They generally always have a lifting arm that is much longer than the dingle arm. This is to make the boomerang lay over quickly, so that it is working like the blades on a helicopter to keep the boomerang aloft.. They are often made from 2 or 1.5mm These can have strikingly different arm lengths, invariably with a shorter dingle arm than lead arm. The lead arm is often tweaked out at the tip. This kind of boomerang generally has an elliptical flight path of reasonable distance and limited hover at the end of the flight. A great shape for being creative with novelty designs - e.g. snakes, birds and all sorts.
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her boomerangs (this keeps them low), and a lot more drag to slow them down them when they come back. Three / Four bladers often have less tendency to layover, than two bladers. Also the arms are ‘swept forward’ as in the above picture copy of a ‘Triton IV’. The point is illustrated below, the shape on the left has swept forward arms’ and so would layover less than the shape on the right. This shape gives a ‘tight’ circular path at even height. Also, having three or more arms makes catching it a safer bet – just go for the middle and it’s a catch.
phenolic resin, or plywood at around 3mm. A thin version of the typical aerofoil section is used on the arms, but the real trick with getting these to hang in the air is the tuning. This is an art in itself, but most have the lifting and dingle arms bent up (i.e. out of the paper for the picture), see tuning tips in the next section. 