Helping Jakey Fly

I learned from making a dragon to pay attention when Jacob says he wants to make something. This time it was wings. And a jet pack. The wings needed to be all wood and needed to fold back. The jet pack was so he could fly into outer space whenever he wanted.
I nixed the jet pack. There are some things I just really can't do.
Then I spent an hour convincing Jacob that fabric wings would be better than wood ones. He relented. I had an idea for wings that could pop up but needed to go to Lowes to see if it was possible. It was almost exactly noon and so I promised Jakey that if he could keep Beau awake until we got to Lowes we could go inside to find the right parts. He did a great job and so we found ourselves on the gate/hardware aisle. They had the perfect spring, a screen door spring that was a little more than 12 inches long. We also picked up three 3/8" dowels and a package of mending brackets. When we got home we cut a four inch piece off the spring with heavy pliers. Then we wired the spring at it's center to the bracket. Then we screwed the bracket onto a square board that had been fitted with straps made from a felted wool sweater (I have a whole drawer of felted sweaters so I just grabbed the first scraps I could find.) I then found a piece of fabric large enough to cut a big semi-circle. I folded over the top (flat) side of the semi circle and sewed two long pockets for the dowels to fit into. Once they were slid in place I fit the ends of the dowels into the springs and voila! Jacob flew!
A close up of the back operating parts:
Holding the wings down before take off:And LIFTOFF!Here it shows the board with the straps:
Jacob showing off his huge wingspan
Here's my grand total at Lowes (including a donation for muscular dystrophy, they get me everytime), which includes all the parts for three sets of wings.Eight bucks isn't too much when it comes to equipping super-heroes with the right gear!
Now I just have to make two more sets!