“Dragon” Day

Cornell University has a long and storied tradition that takes place on the last day of classes before spring break. The week preceding, all of the first years architecture students construct a mammoth dragon sculpture and parade it through campus. Not to be outdone, a comparatively small team of engineers makes a comparatively small phoenix sculpture. With the playful invocation of the age-old rivalry between physics and engineering, a graduate student in physics had the idea to construct a float to parade as well.

2014

The beginings were humble and hasty: a chicken wire exoskeleton, stuffed with paper and foam for rigidity, and wrapped in packing film as a base for spray paint. What this unicorn lacked in durability, it also lacked in weight: it was carried by only one person despite being 12 feet tall. Unfortunately, time and space are at a premium in a research lab and the unicorn was shoved into obscurity until next year.

2015

Endeavoring to make this a permanent tradition, the torch was passed and I took over as Unicorn Czar and decided to make a more lasting, re-usable structure: one with a wooden endoskeleton. Alas, time was again not on our sides and we were forced to use chicken wire as a support overwhich to stretch a mylar membrane. Furthermore, we were forced to make several small unicorns (one exoskeletal variant and two much heavier endoskeletal variants), instead of a huge 16 foot unicorn.

2016

Still moving forward with the thrust of ages, we at last decided to go big or go not at all, we constructed a wheeled monstrosity that was 16 feet tall and supported a mylar membrane covering through several huge cardboard ribs.

Unfortunately, haste and fate conspired against us in our noble endeavor. The wheel mounting strategy resulted in semi-catastrophic bowing of the legs which made distance travel untenable

2017

Lessons in statics from the previous year well heeded, we machined a solid steel rod to serve as a continuous axle for the wheels. We also decided to innovate by adding two more heads to make a “cerbericorn”

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