balsa

"All you can see of Chewie's feet are his toes. My dad carved them out of balsa wood as he is an engineer too," he said.

From BBC ● Feb. 16, 2024

“Going through my brain were suitable expletives. I hit the brakes, by which time it was too late, it was like balsa wood flying absolutely everywhere.”

From New York Times ● Dec. 25, 2022

The roomy interior was cooled by dry ice, with a single headlamp and a crush zone of balsa wood installed in front.

From Slate ● Aug. 2, 2022

He laid out the physics hurdles of such an epic voyage and even crafted a prototype spacecraft from poster board, balsa wood, and Elmer’s glue.

From Science Magazine ● Jul. 27, 2022

“Good balsa wood isn’t so easy to come by these days, Colonel. I just didn’t think it was a good idea to pass up the chance to buy it.”

From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller

They were taking many of the same chances as their theoretical primitives: the raft was modeled after the balsas of the ancient Peruvians.

From Time Magazine Archive

According to Peruvian tradition, the Inca Tupac Yupanqui sailed a large fleet of balsas into the Pacific, about 1470 A.D.

From Time Magazine Archive

Wagner says in answer, "To this it may be objected that ... tule balsas were in use in Drake's Bay in 1595 and were so recognized without difficulty."

From Francis Drake and the California Indians, 1579 by Robert F. Heizer

Also, after all Urco and some of his captains, breaking out of the burning temple under cover of the smoke escaped, either in balsas or, as many declare, by swimming the lake.

From The Virgin of the Sun by Henry Rider Haggard

One of the more highly speculative of the Bolivian writers, Señor Posnansky, of La Paz, believes that gigantic balsas were used in bringing ten-ton monoliths across the lake to Tiahuanaco.

From Inca Land Explorations in the Highlands of Peru by Hiram Bingham