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How to Make a Paper Airplane
Last Updated: March 2, 2023 Tested
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Hunter Rising . Hunter Rising is a wikiHow Staff Writer based in Los Angeles. He has more than three years of experience writing for and working with wikiHow. Hunter holds a BFA in Entertainment Design from the University of Wisconsin - Stout and a Minor in English Writing. The wikiHow Video Team also followed the article's instructions and verified that they work. This article has been viewed 4,570,438 times. Learn more...
Up, up, and away! Paper airplanes are a fun, easy way to pass the time—but how exactly do you turn a basic piece of paper into a jet-setting masterpiece? You’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together a handy, step-by-step guide to help you fold your way to a sleek, far-flying paper airplane . In a matter of minutes, you’ll be ready for take-off!
Folding a Classic Paper Airplane
- If you want to make a colored paper airplane, use construction paper instead.
- Make sure the crease points toward you when you’re folding your paper airplane or else you’ll fold the wrong corners.
Tip: Try using a ruler or a credit card to press the fold down if pressing it with your fingernail doesn’t work.
- This fold creates the bottom of your plane so it’s easier to hold and throw once it’s finished.
- Make sure your wings are symmetrical to one another so your plane stays level when you throw it.
Making an Advanced Plane
- Try using different kinds of paper to add designs and test how it affects your plane.
- Make sure the crease you folded is pointing toward you when you start folding the paper, or else your folds won’t line up.
- Don’t let the point touch the bottom edge of your paper or it will affect the structure of your plane when you’re finished.
- If you want your airplane to have a blunt edge in front instead of a point, fold the top of your paper so only the corners touch the center crease.
- Your paper should look like a large triangle on top of a narrow rectangle when you're finished.
- Don’t hide your previous folds inside or else it will affect your plane’s structure.
- Make sure the wings on your plane are the same size so your plane doesn’t fly to one side.
Community Q&A
Video . By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube.
- Try taping or gluing your paper airplane if it doesn’t stay together on its own. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 24 Not Helpful 9
- Test throwing your airplane outdoors so it can catch the wind and fly further. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 18 Not Helpful 12
- Look for other paper airplane designs online to test out different styles. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 10 Not Helpful 9
- Avoid throwing your airplane at any people or animals since the tip may be sharp. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 14 Not Helpful 6
- Don’t throw a paper airplane in school since you could get into trouble. ⧼thumbs_response⧽ Helpful 11 Not Helpful 6
You Might Also Like
- ↑ https://www.foldnfly.com/1.html
- ↑ https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/how-to-make-the-worlds-best-paper-airplanes/
About This Article
To make a simple paper airplane, first fold a piece of paper in half lengthwise. Then, unfold it and fold the top 2 corners to the center. Next, fold the angled edges that you just created towards the center, leaving about 1 cm of space between the bottom of the angled edges and the crease. Fold along your original center-line, revealing a small inverted triangle. Now, fold the small inverted triangle up, to lock the angled edges in place. Then, turn your plane over and fold down the top 2 flaps to create wings. Hold it by the bottom edge, and let it fly! For tips on making a slightly more advanced plane, keep reading the article! Did this summary help you? Yes No
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The Best Paper Airplane
People always ask us, "what is the best paper airplane" well.... it depends on your goal. in this article, we'll explain each goal and show the winning paper airplane design that is our top pick., table of contents.
If you are looking for the greatest paper airplanes, we have you covered. This article will show you how to fold the best paper airplane for every situation. There are different goals that require different designs. For example, if your goal is to fly the longest distance, this requires a different design than if your goal is to do the most acrobatic flips.
We have identified 5 goals and tested every one of our paper airplane designs to determine the winner for each category. Use the table of contents to skip to the category that you are most interested in, or scroll down to begin.
Best Paper Airplane for Distance
If you are looking for the furthest flying paper airplane that can really go the distance, we recommend The Bird . This design is relatively easy to fold, and if it is adjusted carefully it can glide for a very long distance.
To optimize your throw for distance, try tossing this paper airplane at a 45° upward angle. Throw as hard as you can without causing the paper to deform in the wind. If the airplane doesn't go in a straight line, you can make small bends to the backs of the wings. To learn more about making adjustments to your paper planes, please read our article on steering your paper airplanes . If you are outdoors, put the wind at your back to get a little boost.
In our tests, a 10 year old child regularly threw this paper airplane more than 50 feet. If you throw it harder, it could go even further. If we find a better design we'll let you know, but for now this is our pick for the best paper plane for distance.
If you don't mind using a rubber band to add a little extra oomph, then try the Lift Off paper plane. It goes a bit further, but requires a good rubber band and a solid launch.
Best Paper Airplane for Time Aloft
The paper airplane that stays up in the air the longest is the Stealth Glider . This design is fairly easy to fold, but a little tricky to adjust for long flights. Be patient and make tiny wing adjustments to get this design to glide very slowly through the air.
To optimize your throw for time aloft, throw this paper airplane straight up as high as you can. Gravity is your enemy in this contest, so the higher you can throw it, the longer it will stay up. The goal is for it to go straight up and then level off and glide around in circles for as long as possible.
In our tests, a 10 year old child got this design to stay up for over 6 seconds. This may not seem like much, but the average paper airplane flight is less than 2 seconds, so this is more than triple that. This is currently our pick for the best paper plane for time in the air.
If you can find a balcony or other safe place where you can throw the paper airplane from higher up, you will be able to get much more hang time.
Best Paper Airplane for Speed
The fastest paper airplane in our collection is the Sonic Jet . This has some tricky folds, but the sleek design helps this paper plane cut through the air very quickly.
Use some tape to keep the body of this aircraft tightly together and throw it as hard as you can at a slightly upwards angle. In our tests, a 10 year old child was able to throw this airplane at nearly 20 miles per hour! This makes it our fastest paper airplane design for hand throwing.
If using a rubber band launcher is permitted, then check out the Lift Off Paper Plane . It goes slightly faster, but requires a strong rubber band and a good flick.
Best Easy Paper Airplane for Teaching
For teaching young children how to fold their first paper airplane we recommend the Basic Dart . This design only requires 5 folds and it flies well even if those folds are not made accurately.
Young children often lack the dexterity to make perfect symmetrical folds. You can help them practice the first fold by showing them how to line up the corners when folding the paper in half. Kids often use their whole hand to smash the paper when folding. This can cause wrinkles and unwanted creases. Show them how to carefully use their finger to press the paper flat in a smooth line. After a few tries, they will get the hang of it.
To make it easier, download and print our folding templates . These have lines printed on the paper so children can easily fold on the lines. If your child is having difficulty, you might fold and then unfold some of the lines so the paper already has a crease in it and will more easily go where the child wants it to go.
Best Paper Airplane for Acrobatics
Our favorite design for acrobatics is the Light Spinner . What makes this one special is that it flies in a big corkscrew spiral through the air, which is pretty unique. You can adjust the angle of the wings to make the spirals wider or narrower.
If you read our article on steering paper airplanes you can learn how to make adjustments to this or any paper airplane to get it to fly in turns, loops, spins or spirals. However you want!
Looking for a paper airplane that can fly in a big vertical loop? Check out the aptly named Loop Plane . This design was specifically made to fly in a Loop-the-Loop. These are our picks for the best paper planes for acrobatics.
Best Paper Airplane for Decoration
This category is highly subjective since it is judged based on aesthetics. If you are looking for a paper plane that looks like a bird, check out the White Dove , or Eagle Eye . If you want a paper airplane that looks like a real airplane, try the Navy Plane or Fast Glider . If you are looking for a design that just looks cool and unique, take a look at the Fast Swallow or King Bee . You can customize any paper airplane design for your own personal likes and dislikes, so experiment and find what pleases you the most.
As you can see, there is no single design that we can call the "best paper airplane design" or "greatest paper airplane". It really depends on your goals and personal preferences. Hopefully, this article has given you some ideas and taught you a few new paper airplane designs.
Now that you know the best paper airplane design for your specific goal, don't forget to use the optimal size of paper to fold your paper airplane. You may need to experiment to determine if a small or large paper airplane works best. Once you have some practice with your winning paper airplane, here are some paper airplane games that you can use to challenge your friends. Have fun!
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in: Featured , How To , Skills
Jeremy Anderberg • January 19, 2022 • Last updated: January 20, 2022
How to Make the World’s Best Paper Airplanes
There are many skills fathers should pass on to their children: how to ride a bike, how to skip a stone , and of course, how to make a paper airplane. When it’s time to show your kids how to fold a humble piece of paper into a soaring jet, don’t stumble around and hastily construct one from the poor memory of your youth — one that takes a disappointing nosedive as soon as it leaves your fingertips. Instead, teach them the art of making a plane that can truly go the distance.
The three designs below are tried and true (you wouldn’t believe some of the science behind paper airplanes) and are perfect beginner, moderate, and expert level models to play with. They go in order from easiest to hardest, so there’s something for every age level — including adult; don’t act like you’re not going to try these out in the break room.
Beginner Level: The Bulldog Dart
This paper airplane is a warm-up of sorts. It’s simple, requires few folds, and flies well. It’s just not going to win you any contests or style points. If it’s your kid’s first time making a real paper airplane, this is a good place to start.
1. First you fold the paper in half lengthwise, and then unfold. This initial crease is simply a guideline for the next folds.
2. Fold the top two corners down so they meet the center crease. This is the classic way to start a paper airplane, and probably what you first learned as a kid.
3. Flip the plane over, and fold the corners in again to the center crease. You want the diagonal line coming off the top of the plane (on the left side) to be lined up with the middle (like on the right side).
After both folds are completed.
4. Fold the top point down so that the tip meets the bottom of where the previous folds come together.
5. Fold the entire plane in half, in on itself. This creates the snub nose, which gives the Bulldog Dart its name.
6. Fold the wings down so that you’re making a straight line across from the top of the snub nose. Repeat on the other side.
The finished Bulldog Dart. This flies better when thrown at lower speeds. Your tendency is to launch it, but the heavy nose will just fly it into the ground. Give it a softer throw and you’ll have better luck.
Intermediate Level: The Harrier
This is a slightly more advanced paper airplane. There are a few more folds, and it flies a bit better than the above Bulldog Dart. This is the perfect middle ground between simple and complex recreational paper aircraft.
1. Fold in half lengthwise and then unfold. As with the Bulldog above, this center crease is just a guide for future folds.
2. Fold the top corners in so they meet at the center crease.
3. Fold the entire top down so that it resembles an envelope. Make sure you leave a half inch or so at the bottom — you don’t want the top point to evenly meet the bottom edge.
4. Fold the top corners in so they meet at the middle. There should be a small triangle tail hanging out beneath these folds.
5. Fold that small triangle up to hold those previous folds in place.
6. Fold in half, but make you sure you fold it outwards on itself, not inwards. You want the previous triangular fold to be visible on the bottom edge.
7. Fold the wing down so its edge meets the bottom edge of the airplane. Repeat on the other side.
The finished Harrier shown below. It has cool pointed wings and has great stability because of the triangle on the bottom.
Expert Level: The Hammer
While there are far more advanced paper airplanes, this one, in my opinion, is the perfect balance of complexity and accessibility for the Average Paper Airplane Joe. It has far more folds than the previous two models, and also flies the best and farthest. Pay attention with this one, folks, and the payoff is well worth it.
1. First, fold the top left corner all the way down so it meets the right edge of the paper. You’ll then unfold, as this will be a guiding crease.
2. Repeat the same thing with the top right corner and unfold.
You should end up with an unfolded sheet of paper with two creases forming an X.
3. Fold the top right corner down so that its edge meets the crease that goes from top left to bottom right.
4. Do the same with the left corner. The top left point should exactly meet the diagonal right edge of the airplane.
5. Fold the plane in half in on itself, then unfold. You’ll use that middle crease as a guide.
6. After you’ve unfolded the previous step, fold the top down so that its edge meets the bottom edge.
7. Fold the top corners down so that their points meet at the middle crease.
8. Unfold — as with many steps in making this airplane, these creases are a guide.
9. Now take what was the top edge that you previously folded down (Step 6) and fold it back up at the point where its edge meets the creases from the previous step.
10. Fold the corners in yet again so that their edge meets both the edge of the top flap and the crease from Step 7.
Both corners folded in, meeting both the top flap and the previously-made creases. These are ultimately the wings.
11. Fold the wings in once more, this time simply folding along the crease that you already made. After this step your plane should have straight lines down from the top to the bottom.
Both wings folded in again; straight edges from top to bottom.
12. Fold the top down from where it meets the top of the wing flaps you created in the previous step.
13. Fold the whole thing in half outward. You want all the paper flaps on the outside of the craft. At this point, folding can become a little tricky because of the thickness of the paper, so take extra care in making good, clean folds.
14. Fold the wings down so that their edge meets the bottom edge of the plane. This creates a small snub nose. Again, this can be a tough fold, so be precise and take your time if you have to.
The finished Hammer. This bad boy flies like a dream.
Other DIY kids projects we’ve featured include:
- How to Make a Wooden Sword
- Easy, No-Sew Tepee
- Rubber Band Gun
- Battery Made From Quarters
- Pencil Catapult
While you’re making these paper airplanes with your kiddos, tell them some great riddles for kids . Great way to pass the time.
Want to learn more about rediscovering the joys of play? Listen to our podcast interview with Charlie Hoehn , author of Play It Away: A Workaholic’s Cure For Anxiety .
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Fly Right with 16 of the Best Paper Airplane Designs
By M. W. Byrne
Updated on March 11, 2022
Looking for inspiration on the best paper airplane designs that fly as good as they look? You’ve landed on the right page! Below, we review 16 of the very best designs anyone can make.
Adults are finding that many of the pursuits that were formerly considered “childish” are actually helpful for meditation, simple fun, and inspiring creativity.
Coloring books, Lego sets , and adult Nerf weaponry are jumping off the shelves–and it’s not just the fault of kids these days. These items allow grown-ups to get in touch with their inner child, and help keep their development arrested.
Another arena that has grown in popularity is crafts, including the high art, advanced science, and incredible skill of paper airplane construction. Any delinquent can fold a simple aircraft, but doing it with skill and precision combines engineering, hand-eye coordination, creativity , and, of course, paper.
The Best Paper Airplanes Anyone Can Make
Come with us on a tree-killing spree, and put those TPS reports and expense ledgers to work entertaining your flights of fancy. Discover the 16 best paper airplane designs below for fun, flight, and inter-office betting.
There’s no reason to go over the top when it comes to making a paper airplane. Classics are that way for a reason, and the dart is as traditional as they come. Made for distance and simple to fold, there’s no need to overthink, underthink, or even really think at all.
Learn how to fold it here.
2. Sea Glider
Here’s what all those pretentious swans should be. Instead of taking hours of training, you can whip up a serviceable gull in just a few minutes, only this one can survive an Alka-Seltzer attack without bursting. A drifting glider with solid distance performance, it has aesthetics to spare.
3. Concorde
Sharp and fast, The Concorde isn’t going to necessarily win many distance competitions, since it’s so streamlined, but it’s a nasty dogfighter that will take down any bogies that head into your airspace. Cut hard and accurate, it’ll rip holes in those ceiling snowflakes that Betty from HR keeps hanging up around the holidays.
4. Tie Fighter
Perhaps not an exact replica of the Star Wars Tie Fighter, this is a respectable facsimile which has the basic design of the troublesome tie, and bears the same whirlygig acrobatic action that the short-range space-to-space combatants have. Good for twists, weak on distance.
5. Stunt Plane
Fun paper planes that are more than one-trick ponies are hard to come by. The stunt plane has a dense build with wings that are easily manipulated to get a wide range of effects. Every bend or flex will offer up a new result, and the overall wide, flat fuselage provides loads of lift that lets it stay aloft for proving its acrobatic chops again and again.
6. F-15 Eagle
Using the same aerodynamics that went into the actual F-15, without wasting billions like the government did, you can get a lot of distance and speed out of this design, and can tweak it for a few flips and turns if you so desire. Also not bad for painting up and pimping out in your favorite camouflage scheme.
7. White Dove
Almost purely decorative, the White Dove is a handy accessory to craft mobiles for infants, or a cheap way to sorely disappoint your friends at their wedding . Drop a thousand of these off the roof of the church and watch the guests laugh and laugh as the bride plots your death.
8. Straight Man
A moderate variation on a pretty standard plane, the look is nothing to crow about, but the accuracy is unrivaled. Capable of handling numerous throw speeds, the rear gap keeps airflow centered for a bullseye accurate launch every time. If it misses the mark, it’s operator error.
9. Star Flight
Using the same basic idea that allows the Straight Man to fly true gives the Star Flight a nice flip to its personality. A few adjustments to the scoop on the front, and it will do complete turns in the air. Endlessly entertaining as you adjust and throw, adjust and throw, it will waste almost as much time as binge-watching, without the crippling circulation issues .
10. The Spyder
A dual set of wings, with canards up front and the tailfins bringing up the rear, The Spyder bears an unusual look, and permits you to adjust it for more twists, turns, and aerial feats than a standard single-wing design will. Limited on distance, it can also be rigged to hop off the back of a glider plane mid-flight, for some quick Quinjet action.
11. F-117 Nighthawk
Stealth fans who live or work in places with active paper radar need this in their arsenal for clandestine twilight ops so that the Secretary can deny all involvement. There’s simpler, lighter versions if that is what you crave, but we like the faithful reproduction done here because: awesomeness.
12. Eagle Eye
This bird-inspired paper airplane does more than look good, it can give you worthwhile gliding distance that more closely emulates an actual bird of prey. Functional, delicately decorative, and best of all, easy to fold; there’s no one who can’t find something to love here.
13. DC-3 Swallow
A weaving plane with an impressive hang-time, the Swallow is favored by many enthusiasts for its capacity to be altered for more distance, more speed, or a more meandering flight plan. Probably our favorite glider in the sky, it doesn’t just drift along aimlessly, but can be weighted down to move like a balsa wood plane, giving it some real panache when life requires.
14. King Bee
We didn’t name it, so don’t send us your complaints that there’s no such thing as a “king” bee. What this does is offer a gentle wobble while it flies that looks like a drone seeking out flowers to violate for their sweet, sweet pollen. A better bug-style plane than the plain cicada, it’s also fairly easy to make.
Though hardly what we would expect from an flying object that the Airforce will claim is heat lightning, what we like about the UFO is the way it is thrown. Rather than gripping it in your sticky fingers, it slides off the end of your hand, making the launch steadier for anyone who hasn’t had a drink in a few hours and is getting the blue shakes.
16. Spin Plane
Getting a tight spiral with a football is something that many people, like Mark Sanchez , have failed to get right. Putting the perfect spin on a paper plane is something almost no one can do, unless they have the secret ingredient. A little practice is all it takes to get a rifled spin time and again with this little dervish.
Paper Airplane Facts
Not enough for you? How about some paper airplane factoids to help you impress your team at trivia night:
Longest Hang Time World Record
Japanese businessman Takuo Toda has made his mark on the world in more ways than one. He will go down in history as having folded and thrown the paper airplane with the longest hang time. He beat the previous world record by 0.3 seconds, for a total of 27.9 seconds. Not only that, but he’s even gone so far as to write entire books on folding paper airplanes–talk about passion!
Learn how to fold his Sky King here .
Furthest Flying Paper Airplane
Believe it or not, the world record for the furthest-flown paper airplane has held for almost a decade. In 2012, John Collins (better known online as The Paper Airplane Guy) put his extensive study of aerodynamics and origami to the test. He folded a deceptively simple-looking airplane that flew a whopping 226 feet, 10 inches. Of course, he got a college football quarterback to cannon it down the field, but Collins’ smart design is what carried the distance.
Learn more about John Collins and his record-breaking design here .
Largest Paper Airplane to Take Flight
Forget all the other record-breakers; this is the one that matters. Behold the glory of Arturo’s Desert Eagle, weighing in at over 800 pounds and stretching an incredible 45+ feet long. Did we mention it can break 100 mph in flight? Sure, it crashed after only 10 seconds, but the fact is it’s friggin’ huge and does indeed fly.
The original design was by 12 year-old Arturo Valdenegro, whose submission was accepted in a contest run by the Pima Air & Space Museum. Then, a team of aerospace engineers lead by one of the designers of the B2 stealth bomber brought Arturo’s vision to larger-than-life. Given an initial lift by a helicopter, Arturo’s Desert Eagle is a soaring example of American ingenuity spanning generations.
Watch Arturo’s Desert Eagle take flight here.
Paper Airplanes Predate Actual Airplanes
Depending on who you ask, the paper airplane might have been invented by Lockheed, Leonardo DaVinci, or even the Chinese over 2000 years ago. In reality, humans have been wasting time folding flying objects for a long time–predating our ambition to take flight ourselves in the 20th century. Folding paper darts was certainly a popular past time in the 1800’s. Even the Wright brothers used these darts as testbeds for their ideas on human flight!
Following their success at Kitty Hawk, interest in flight (and folding paper darts) surged. Eventually, a Popular Mechanics story from 1933 elevated this simple design in the public imagination by labeling a dart design “airplane-like”. The rest, as they say, is history.
Now that you’ve seen the best paper airplane designs, it’s time to get folding! Try folding one of our 16 recommended planes, or just brush up on the ones you used to make as a kid. Either way, you’re guaranteed to smile a little bit watching it sail down the corridor without an engine or feather in sight. Just make sure the boss doesn’t see!
What are your favorite paper airplane designs? Have you ever created one of your own? Let us know in a comment below!
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How to Make a Paper Airplane
Learn the simple steps for high-flying fun with this tutorial on five basic paper airplane patterns.
Related To:
Test your paper folding technique with these paper airplane examples. Whether you are looking for a quick diversion from the grind of adulthood or are teaching a youngster DIY skills, these planes are a great way to add a little levity to your day. The examples below are all beginner or intermediate level. The materials are cheap and only require paper, a pair of scissors, a ruler, and some double stick tape (optional) to complete.
Paper Airplane DIY
Create fun and simple paper airplanes
Photo by: Sam Henderson
Sam Henderson
For best results use a flat, thin-edged ruler. Make good creases along each edge. Adding double stick tape to the inside of the body keeps the wings from separating in flight.
The most basic version. A simple standard that everyone should know how to make.
- Fold the paper in half vertically.
- Unfold the paper and fold each of the top corners into the center line.
- Fold the top edges into the center line.
- Fold the plane in half toward you.
- Fold the wings down, matching the top edges up with the bottom edge of the body.
- Add double stick tape to the inside of the body. The finished plane should look like this.
This one is built for distance, plus it just looks cool.
- Fold the peak toward you and 3/4” from the bottom of the paper.
- Fold both top corners into the center line.
- Fold the remaining tip over the two flaps at the center line to lock them in place.
- Fold the plane in half away from you.
- Fold the wings down 1” from the bottom of the plane.
- Fold up the sides of each wing 1/2” tall.
- Cut two small slits at the back of each wing. Fold up the tabs.
Built correctly, this bee-like beauty stays in the air for a long time.
- Fold the paper in half horizontally.
- Fold the peak down to meet the edge of the previous fold.
- Fold the upper sides into the center line.
- Fold the top edge 1/2” away from you.
- Fold the plane in half towards you.
- Fold the wings down 1/2” from the bottom of the plane.
Count on speed and distance from this sleek plane.
- Unfold the paper and fold the top edge down 2”.
- Fold the top edge down again to meet the bottom of the previous fold.
- Fold the top edge down one more time to meet the bottom of the previous fold.
- Fold the top edges down and away from you to the center line on the back of the paper.
- Starting at the top of the thick nose of the plane, fold the wings down 1/2” in the front and slightly angled to 1 1/2” in the back. Fold up the edges of the wings 1/2”.
The Bullnose
This plane is deceptively fast and stays aloft for quite a distance.
- Fold the top right corner over to the left side, making a fold from the top of the paper to the bottom right corner.
- Unfold the paper and repeat for the left corner.
- Unfold the paper again and fold the top right corner over to meet the crease made from the first fold.
- Fold the left corner over to meet the crease from the second fold.
- Fold the top right edge over to meet the edge of the fold from step 3. Repeat for the other side.
- Fold the top edge down and towards you to meet the point where the right and left layers cross.
- Fold the plane in half away from you. Staring at the nose, fold the wings down at a slight angle, 1/2” in the front to about 2” in the back.
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Farthest flight by a paper aircraft
The farthest flight by a paper aircraft is 88.31 m (289 ft 9 in), and was achieved by Dillon Ruble (USA), with the support of Nathaniel Erickson and Garrett Jensen (both USA) in Crown Point, Indiana, USA, on 2 December 2022.
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An Interview with The Paper Airplane Guy, John Collins
By Grėtė Kaulinytė
Grėtė kaulinytė.
The Paper Airplane Guy John Collins has studied both origami and aerodynamics and spent many years improving paper planes designs. One of the planes – “Suzanne” – named after his wife, has broken Guinness world record in 2012, flying 226 feet 10 inches.
A week after Maker Faire, Bay Area, John will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania to participate in Vilnius Mini Maker Faire and its Education Forum. As organizers of this event, we are glad to share the interview with this dedicated maker who has proven to thousands of people around the world that science can be embracing, challenging and fun at the same time.
30 Years of Big Dreams
Usually when we think about paper airplanes, a grown up full time paper plane maker doesn’t pop up in our mind. How did it happen that you dedicated your life to paper airplanes? What was so attractive or engaging in this activity?
It didn’t happen overnight. My first book was published in 1989, so I’ve been professional in one way or another for 30 years if you start counting from the time I got the advance for that book. When the book hit store shelves, I started doing small presentations for book stores and libraries. Usually, I didn’t get paid much, if anything, for showing up.
I was happy to promote the book. Your first book is like your first child. You give it a lot of attention and have big dreams. Nobody gets rich by writing a paper airplane book, so inevitably there’s a letdown. I kept going anyway because I just love paper airplanes.
I’ve been full time for the past three and half years. That was purely an accident, literally. I got fired for accidentally mishandling a digital file. I thought I had deleted it, but I ended up being able to rescue it. By then it was too late. So, it was a complete accident that I had to re-evaluate what I wanted to do, and what I could do; and I decided to try being the full time paper airplane guy. If you just looked at it logically, there were huge risks and nothing to really compare the potential to. It was quite a leap of faith. I had worked in marketing and television production for decades and never lost anyone money marketing their products, so I figured I could make my effort work.
The money is not like running a creative services department, but the rewards are much better. Working with students from K through post grad is an amazing experience. My 45 minute shows are live performances with 24 flying machines that have to work perfectly on cue. There’s plenty of challenge to getting that right every time. I really enjoy the live audience part as well. You can tell immediately what’s working and what’s not. The books have picked up some momentum in sales recently. So, things are going great right now.
What did you do before becoming a professional paper airplane guy?
I was a liberal arts major. I worked in television. I directed live newscasts for more than 20 years. Then I worked in commercial production; producing, writing, directing, editing, and sometimes voicing television commercials. I had a great time doing all of that work. It was enormously fun and challenging. All during those years, I was writing paper airplane books and studying origami. My fourth book is just out. I self-published this time so that I could get exactly the book I wanted, and with Amazon, the distribution is much easier for self-publishing than ever before.
What was the turning point in your life when you understood you can make innovations in paper airplanes?
I realized fairly early, probably at nine or ten, that I could fold more accurately than my brothers. I also felt I had some intuition when it came to flying things. But really, it wasn’t until after I’d studied some of the great origami artists that my planes really became something special. I knew what I wanted to do with the folding, and all of those origami techniques really helped tremendously. That was really about a ten-year process of studying the art form and slowly bringing those techniques into my planes. It’s relatively easy to follow someone’s directions. Figuring out why they did the steps in a particular order is the interesting part,and that takes time, study and repetition.
Experts say that it takes about 10,000 hours of working in a medium before the artifice becomes second nature. The process disappears and then you can translate your thoughts or emotions into the work without consciously thinking about the paint brush, the musical instrument, or in my case the precise folding techniques.
Were there any failures in making airplanes design which ended up becoming a successful accident, a great paper airplane?
This is a great question on a couple of levels. First, the whole idea of failure is interesting. I think in terms of outcome; not success or failure. Like any science experiment, there’s no wrong outcome. It’s just data; information from which you can move forward. When I made my first attempt to break the world record for distance, I fell short. I had to call my sponsors and tell them I didn’t make it. I was really dreading those phone calls. It kept me up most of the night, knowing I was going to talk to the people who had put up all the money for the cameras, the venue, the food, the surveyor, etc. One by one, they all ended up asking the same thing: you’re going to keep going, right?
That taught me an important lesson about business people and life. Business people expect that there will be setbacks. Winning is easy. It’s apparent when you win. Failing is actually more complicated. One has to declare failure. You actually have to decide you’ve failed.
So, yes, a couple of planes that I created, thinking they were going to be one thing, ended up being something else. The Bat Plane started out to be the Sea Gull. I got the wings about the right shape, but then the wings twitched weirdly when I launched it. Figuring out why the wings twitched lead me to using thinner paper to magnify the effect. Now the plane looks like a flapping bat, and it’s obviously the Bat Plane.
The Boomerang II was simply supposed to be the Boomerang I with landing gear. In making compromises in the layering to create the landing gear, I got the center of gravity too far to the rear. The plane would stall horribly and crash. On some throws it would flip over an fly a couple of feet toward me. Well, that was intriguing enough for me to figure out how to make the plane come all the way back. It took a couple of weeks of tweaking and throwing practice, but I eventually created one of the stars of my program; a plane that flies out, flips over, and flies back upside down. I think the history of invention is like that. Starting with a goal, making concrete steps toward the goal, evaluating the result; not just for the original goal, but overall utility; and then proceeding as planned or pursuing the unexpected.
Were there any doubts and down moments in your life when you got bored or irritated of making paper airplanes and wanted to drop everything?
I’ve always loved the process of making a paper airplane. The precision, the act of folding the paper, the challenge of conquering the air… there’s a kind of magic to all of that. It’s almost a meditation. While I can recall wishing I was finished with a task like folding 1,500 planes for a corporate event, I’ve never been tired of making planes for my presentation, or bored of the whole idea. I’m always looking for ways to improve and refine. Every plane you make is an opportunity. Of course, it’s only been a full time job for less than four years, so maybe that’s a better question for a few years down the road. For now, I can say it’s constantly fresh and fun.
How long did it take to complete the “glider project”: to create, make and improve this design before it could break the world record for the farthest paper plane flight?
The whole project took about three years. Finding a thrower, a place to throw, and then having to switch to a glider design. It was much harder than I had anticipated. The funny thing about the glider I eventually used was that it was precisely the same folding pattern that I used on the very first plane I folded from A4 paper. Of course, I tinkered with it, expanding the wings, adding reinforcement creases here and there; playing with dihedral (that ended up being huge) but the folding sequence ended up being my very first try. That’s kind of odd and somewhat amazing that I guessed right on the first try. Of course, you have to try a lot of other things to realize that.
What is your own favorite paper airplane design at the moment?
That’s an unfair question. That’s like asking what your favorite child is. You might have one, but you’d never admit that in public.
There’s a Real Hunger for Making
You published some books on how to make paper airplanes: do you know who your readers and followers are? Are they children or grown-ups?
The fun part about my books is that they seem to be for everybody. Every age group is buying them. I think there’s a real hunger for making things; even very simple things like paper airplanes. I think that’s why Maker Faires have become a global phenomenon.
Humans are born makers. We even invent our own reality moment to moment in the form of stories we tell ourselves. This is why “talk therapy” works. It’s why mirror therapy works on phantom limb pain (a kind of therapy where you duplicate the good side of the body and move it while you watch—your brain sees both sides of your body working fine and learns to disregard the weird message from the missing limb.) That tells us that our brains are making up a “reality story” and we can re-write that story if we want to. We love making physical things, making stories out of ordinary events, making celebrations, making food, making drinks, making clothes—we love making. It feels good. Maker Faires tap into that. It’s an addicting feeling and a virtuous feedback loop.
You talked a lot about paper airplanes as a great educational tool to learn aerodynamics and geometry. What would be your advice to teachers who would like to experiment with this activity during their lessons?
Just do it. Almost any physical manipulative creates a scientific method kind of activity loop. For paper airplanes, you make a guess at how to fly it better and devise an experiment (the kind of adjust you want to try), you make the adjustment, run the trial (the throw), you generate data (did it work?), you analyze why and formulate a new hypothesis. Every flight is a test flight. Paper airplanes improve small motor coordination, direction following, 3D visualization (taking a 2D object and making it into a 3D object), basic geometric shape recognition and more; the rudiments of algebra are sitting there in the idea of doing the same thing to both sides of the plane. That’s the way you manipulate equations. From early learners through secondary education, there’s a place for paper airplanes. If you’re still unclear about that email me.
You became a professional airplane maker, broke Guinness world record, got on TV, wrote books, travelled the world, talked to big audiences… Are there any future plans left? Maybe there’s another world record you’d like to beat?
There’s always another record to go after. Duration is hanging out there as a tempting goal. This last year has been a whirlwind, so I’ve not put as much time into that idea as I would’ve preferred. I like to write books, so I may eventually do a book for powered paper airplanes. There are a couple of powered schemes I like, but I don’t love the planes they use. I think there’s opportunity there to take it up a notch there.
What are your other interests and hobbies?
I really love windsurfing. It’s a wing on a surfboard. All of the aerodynamics and the visceral fun of balancing your body, the wind, and the water all at the same time. It’s one of those sports where you need to be present all the time. If you lose concentration, you’re going for a swim. So, it’s a nice diversion. I swing dance with my wife, Suzanne. We’re not that good, but we have a lot of fun.
A Cross Between a County Fair and Burning Man
You are maker, closely connected with makers movement – how could you describe who makers are to the general public that haven’t heard about them?
Makers look like they’re a breed apart, but they’re not. They’re everybody. The backyard inventor, the garage tinkerer, the serious hobbiest, the welder, dress maker, 3D printer, wood worker, auto mechanic, metal spinner, the knitter, the beadworker, the model maker, the cook, and the paper folder all find common cause under the umbrella of Maker. The bigger Maker Faires are like a cross between a County Fair and Burning Man—it’s all the fire breathing sculpture fun without the nudity. Makers have a passion to share what they’ve learned and are really ambassadors for their field of making. Some makers have taken a small piece of their hobby and pushed it to the limits. The result looks odd sometimes, but it’s the result of arguing to the logical extreme. Going to a Maker Faire, you will see a lot of things you’ve always wanted to try. And you’ll get the chance! That’s the best thing about a Maker Faire; you’re going to make stuff. You can’t keep from it. One of my favorite things to get people to make is a smile. That’s a pretty good start.
Finally, what are you going to present in Vilnius Mini Maker Faire and its’ Educational forum on May 25-26?
I’m coming fully loaded with fun. I’m bringing every kind of plane anyone has ever seen me fly. Boomerangs, flappers, tumblers, spinners, a plane that flips over and flies back upside down, and some planes that seem to fly forever (actual forever may vary). People will learn how to make the world record plane, of course. And I’ve got a newly designed activity table for learning to make the Tumbling Wing. Vilnius will be only the third time I’ve used this maker project, and I’m really excited to see how it works with people who won’t necessarily speak English. I think the diagrams are strong enough, and we’ll find out where the gaps are pretty quickly. It’ll be a blast watching people learn to balance a plane on an invisible wave of air. That never gets old! Did I mention I have the best job in the world?
Photos from John Collin‘s personal archives
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Three Engineers Break Guinness World Record For Farthest Paper Airplane Flight
Three engineers broke guinness world record for creating and throwing paper airplane flight in crown point, indiana, usa, which flew 289 feet and 9 inches..
Image: Guinness World Record
“We would fold paper airplanes back then as a fun childhood activity,” said one of the engineers, Ruble. Further, he added, “Origami, or the art of folding paper, became a long-term passion.” “It was hard to believe,” said Ruble after he and his partners broke the Guinness World Record."
Trio breaks Guinness World Record for flying paper airplane flight
According to a local newspaper, it takes over 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design. While talking about the paper airplane flight, Jensen shared that they used an A4-sized paper (dimensions of 210 x 297 mm) which went up to the maximum for weight, 100 grams per square metre. “The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it,” said Jensen.
Although, according to Ruble, their design was a little different from your traditional fold-in-half, folding the two corners to the middle line down the middle, which made it pretty unique in that aspect. It’s definitely an unusual design,” said Ruble. Further, the three also shared that they tried to mimic the design of several hypersonic vehicles that could travel at the speed of at least Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). Previously, the team from Malaysia and South Korea broke the record of 252 feet, 7 inches (77 meters) in April 202. Followed by the record of Joe Ayoob and paper airplane designer John M. Collins who flew a paper airplane flight at a distance of 226 feet,10 inches (69 metres).
How to Make a Basic Paper Airplane
The Spruce / Dana Hinders
- Total Time: 20 mins
- Skill Level: Kid-friendly
There are many methods to make a paper airplane, some much more intricate than others. This origami paper airplane is quick and easy to make, and it's able to make long, straight flights. The project works best with 6-inch lightweight origami paper squares. Although many origami projects can be folded with scrapbook paper , magazine pages, and other materials, the airplane needs a lightweight paper to fly well. Thicker paper is also more difficult to fold, which makes it more likely that your plane will be asymmetrical and end up taking a quick nosedive upon launch. This project is a great activity to do with kids, making it a lesson about both origami and aviation. And you could even turn it into a friendly competition to see whose paper airplane can fly the farthest.
Watch Now: How to Make a Simple Origami Paper Airplane
What you'll need.
- 1 6-inch square piece of origami paper
Instructions
Make the initial paper airplane folds.
Start by folding your square piece of origami paper in half with the white side facing up. Crease well, and unfold it. Then, turn and fold the paper in half from the other direction. Crease well, and unfold it.
Next, fold the top of the paper to the middle crease. When you're finished, your paper should look like the photo below.
Fold Down the Corners
Fold down the top left corner to meet the edge of the colored side of your paper. Fold down the top right corner in the same manner.
Make the Nose of the Paper Airplane
Fold in the left and right corners of the paper to create a point in the top center (as seen in the photo below). The pointed tip will become the nose of your origami paper airplane. The extra folds you made in the previous step will help to give the nose the additional weight it needs to make the paper airplane fly properly.
Fold Your Paper Along the Middle Crease
Fold your paper in half along the middle crease. Next, fold the right corner up as shown in the photo below. The corner should be about 1/2 inch from the edge of the paper.
Then, unfold the paper, flip it over, and fold it from the other direction along the same crease.
Make Your Airplane's Tail
Open your paper, and collapse the fold you made in the previous step. If you're having trouble getting the fold to collapse, go over the creases once more to make sure they're as sharp as possible. This creates the tail of your paper airplane.
Make the Wings of Your Origami Paper Airplane
Fold down the top layer of the paper to make the first wing of your paper airplane. At the nose, the wing should be slightly above the middle layer of the paper. At the back, it should be slightly above the bottom of the tail you made in the previous step.
Repeat the process on the other side to make the second wing of your origami paper airplane.
Fly Your Simple Paper Airplane
Now it's time to test your paper airplane. Hold your plane at the widest part of the base, and gently send it flying. If you're having trouble getting your plane to fly, examine it carefully to make sure it is symmetrical. If one side is even slightly larger than the other, your plane won't fly straight.
Don't worry if you need to make a few practice airplanes before finding a method that works for you. Paper airplanes, just like other forms of origami , take a bit of patience to learn how to make them.
Watch Now: How to Make a Dragon
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What is the science behind paper airplanes | What makes a paper plane fly?
When you think of a fine morning, the day is amazing to start with a cup of coffee, a bite of biscuit, and looking at a soaring airplane with the blue sky in the backdrop. Sometimes it reminds me of my childhood where I wondered about how airplanes fly without flapping their wings? What makes a paper plane fly in the air with such ease and breeze like a boss. “They fly with their wings and their engines”, said my dad. As a kid, I often think I should make my airplane and fly to the countries for days and months. Later I found that’s the science behind paper airplanes which makes scientists to scratch their heads during those ages.
Difference between airplanes and paper airplanes:
You might think, what kind of question is this? An airplane and paper airplane are a lot more different when it comes to their size, functionality, operations, and material, etc, etc., But the major difference is paper airplanes are lighter than air aircraft meanwhile airplanes are heavier than air. The common assumption between people is how an airplane that is heavier and bigger can fly in the air? The aircraft is heavier than air and it weighs so much more than tonnes of kilograms.
The science behind paper airplanes:
The key here is the design and surface area of paper airplanes. This makes it easier for them to stay afloat in the air at a certain speed while moving forward. As you can see a fighter plane approaches the air better than a commercial aircraft. This is caused because of its wing design, purpose, and engine performance.
Similarly, the purpose of paper airplanes is to fly using the paper’s material property effectively. The design of any paper airplane plays a vital role in its performance. They decide whether the paper plane is a glider or dart or a stunt one.
Changing the design of paper airplanes causes a major difference – for example a small dent or fold in a symmetrical plane can lead to disturbing its course of direction, sometimes stopping them even from flying.
Forces acting on a paper airplane:
Paper airplanes feel no difference in experiencing forces when you compare it with regular aircraft. Basically Forces are something that happens to attract or repulse physical objects.
For example, gravity is nothing but when you crush and throw a paper upside down it happens to fall to the ground. Its because of the gravity force. Gravity attracts earthly matters towards them regardless of their mass.
Throw a paper airplane is into the air, your hand movement is converted into a force. This force is attached to the paper plane body and moves forward i.e THRUST. Thrust acts as the forward force attached with an aircraft, our regular airplanes get thrust from their engines. Whereas the paper airplane gains it from forwarding throw.
Lift force is a mandatory force and a must force for a flying object. When a paper airplane is thrown into the air. The design and structure allow it to raise its altitude which is called Lift force. To explain more about the science behind paper airplanes in here. It is happening because of its wing structure. Among all other forces, the lift force plays a major role. To be exact without lift force aircrafts are just hover boats.
Have you ever felt some force pushing you back whenever you drive your motorbike? We usually say it is air but it isn’t! It is the drag force that is created when you are trying to disturb the air medium. For an aircraft’s performance, drag is the common enemy but without drag, an aircraft is useless in our atmosphere. It’s like batman without joker, tom without jerry – there is no flight if there is no flight.
Paper airplane equilibrium | Paperplane balancing:
Achieve a cruise flight occurs when all these four forces like thrust, lift, drag, and gravity are well balanced. Kids will have the ability to throw a paper airplane but sometimes some designs need a heavy hand to throw it properly. It means long-distance planes are usually thrown at a very high speed to reach more distance. The world record for the longest distance paper airplane is thrown by a football player and designed by john m collins. But paper airplanes don’t have much association with drag and lift forces because they are very minimal but, they are mostly dependent on the thrust force gained from the throw.
If you want your paper airplane to stay afloat in the air for a longer time you need to have your airplane’s wings wider but you will require minimal thrust to launch them basically. Meanwhile, if you want your design to reach a larger distance within a shorter time you specifically design it with narrow wings and launch it with high force.
What makes a paper airplane fly the farthest?
The design could be a very important aspect of paper aircraft flight. To achieve a greater flight one needs to understand the various factors that will affect the airplane’s performance like distance and speed. The paper airplane legend takuo toda made the aircraft which maintained the longest flying airtime of 29.2 seconds in Fukuyama city, Hiroshima, Japan on 19th December 2010.
Like we have already spoken the second one is made by Collins and thrown by footballer Joe Ayoob which has reached 69.14 meters and made it into a world record on February 26, 2012. This means both of these people have cracked the technique of making a design that has done something which was never done before.
I will list down two planes from the dart & Glider categories for you to try out and experience the change in performances.
I. Nakamura Dart
Ii. easy paper model airplanes.
These two above models are easy to make and simple to understand. Fly them in your garden and understand their reaction to the air medium.
Why is origami talent so important for making a paper airplane?
Japanese are known for their delicious noodles, bleeding-edge technology, and origami designs. Origami is the art of folding paper to bring a concept to a lifelike figure. It could be an animal, bird, or even some mystical creature but it can give life anything that is thought through. The same applies to paper airplane construction, where we have the world’s biggest origamists who have made wonderful designs and given them to our society. Generally, people call it “ aerogami “. Because it is an origami craft deals the environment with aerodynamic ability.
If you really be interested in making paper airplanes all you need is a piece of paper and passion to find happiness anywhere.
Evolution of paper airplanes:
If you try to trace back the history of paper airplanes you will barely find any clue because their origination is as per assumptions near to the invention of papers. Some argue that the greatest Italian polymath Leonardo Davinci had drafted the first paper airplane design. Whereas many histories say that paper lanterns and kites were in custom for hundreds of years before his lifetime.
But historians definitely knew that it is not only a toy but a serious tool to understand the secret science behind paper airplanes flight. Many engineers and scientists have used and still using paper airplanes as a tool to resolve many modern aerodynamics-related problems.
Paper airplane in space:
To blow your mind with a fact National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent a paper airplane to space to honor its contribution in finding aviation solutions. Paper airplanes just travel the space in a straight line unless it is disturbed by an extraterrestrial being or a UFO.
Another interesting fact is wright brothers have used paper airplanes to test out their theories about airplanes. So we all should be thankful to paper planes for giving us the cheapest airplane rides for everyone.
So with paper airplanes, there are no conclusions but 100% sweet beginnings to new inventions and solutions to future generations. Wish you a good day from Liftndrift.
17 thoughts on “What is the science behind paper airplanes | What makes a paper plane fly?”
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Paper Airplanes: Why Flaps and Folds Matter
Introduction
- Sheet of paper, standard 8 ½ inch by 11 inch size
- Large open area in which to fly a paper plane, such as a long hallway, school gym, baseball field, or basketball court. If you are flying your paper plane outside, try to do it when there is not any wind.
- Something to make at least a one foot line with, such as a long string, another ruler, masking tape, rocks, or sticks.
Instructions
- Follow the instructions for the Intermediate design to build a paper airplane .
- Go to a large area to fly your paper plane. Make sure that there is no foot or car traffic at the area. A long hallway or your school gym is a good location. If you are flying your plane outside, like in a baseball field or on a basketball court, do your experiment on a day when there is no wind.
- Use a string, a ruler, masking tape, rocks, or sticks, to make a line in front of you that is at least 30 centimeters (cm) (or one foot) long, going from left to right. This will be the starting line from which you will fly the paper plane.
- Place your toe on the line you prepared and practice throwing your paper air plane a couple of times.
What Happened?
Digging deeper.
Paper airplanes are fun and easy to make. Just fold a piece of paper into a simple plane and send it soaring into the sky with a flick of your wrist. Watching it float and glide in the air gives you a very satisfying and happy feeling.
But what allows the paper plane to glide through the air? And why does a paper plane finally land? To find out, we will talk about the science behind flying a paper plane and the different forces that get a paper plane to fly and land. These same forces apply to real airplanes, too. A force is something that pushes or pulls on something else. When you throw a paper plane in the air, you are giving the plane a push to move forward. That push is a type of force called thrust . While the plane is flying forward, air is moving over and under the wings and is providing a force called lift to the plane. If the paper plane has enough thrust and the wings are properly designed, the plane will have a nice long flight.
But there is more than lack of thrust and poor wing design that gets a paper plane to come back to Earth. As a paper plane moves through the air, the air pushes against the plane, slowing it down. This force is called drag . To think about drag, imagine you are in a moving car and you put your hand outside of the window. The force of the air pushing your hand back as you move forward is drag. Finally, the weight of the paper plane affects its flight and brings it to a landing. Weight is the force of Earth's gravity acting on the paper plane. Figure 1 below shows how all four of these forces, thrust, lift, drag, and weight, act upon a paper plane.
A paper airplane in flight will experience an initial thrust forward which begins its flight and lift from air which will help push it upward. These forces are counteracted by drag that acts in the opposite direction as thrust and gravity which will constantly pull the plane towards the ground.
Well, what do you think? Would you like to start experimenting with these forces? In this activity, you increase how much drag a paper plane experiences and see if this changes how far the plane flies. How will adding drag affect your plane's flight? You can answer this question with just a flick of your wrist.
Ask an Expert
For further exploration.
- Make paper planes that are different sizes and compare how well they fly. Do bigger planes fly further?
- Try making paper planes out of different types of paper, such as printer paper, construction paper, and newspaper. Use the same design for each. Does one type of paper seem to work best for making paper planes? Does one type work the worst?
- Some people like to add paperclips to their paper planes to make them fly better. Try adding a paperclip (or multiple paperclips) to different places on your paper plane (such as the front, back, middle, or wings) and then flying it. How does this affect the plane's flight? Does adding paperclips somewhere make the paper plane's flight better, or much worse?
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The Best Paper Airplane
Introduction: The Best Paper Airplane
Playing with paper airplanes has always been an enjoyable activity for young and old. The paper airplane is said to have been invented by the Chinese in about 400 BC. It's been a great educational toy ever since then! Even the Wright Brothers used paper airplanes to build models of their first actual airplanes.
This paper airplane (pictured above) is simple to make and it performs better than any other paper plane I've made. No previous paper airplane experience is needed. This instructable will guide you through the steps of how to fold it, and then modify it so you can make your own great design!
Step 1: Materials Needed
What you will need to make this airplane:
-A 8.5 x 11 piece of paper (any paper will do, but I prefer to use printer paper, which hasn't been three-hole punched)
-Scotch Tape (optional)
-A willingness to keep trying if you don't succeed the first time.
Step 2: Fold in Half
Fold the paper in half lengthwise (some call this "hot dog style") and open it back up again. Ensure that the crease made by the fold is visible.
Step 3: Fold in Top Corners
Fold the top corners in to the middle crease you made during the previous step. Try to keep these two folds as even and symmetrical as possible. The edges that you folded in should be touching each other, which will make a triangle at the top of your paper.
Step 4: Fold the Top Point Down
Fold the point of the triangle down. I've found that the plane performs best if the shape made by this downward fold is another perfect triangle. Don't worry if your fold isn't perfect--it should still work just fine as long as the shape you made closely resembles a triangle.
Step 5: Fold in Top Corners So the Points Touch
This is similar to Step 3. However, instead of having the the edges completely touch in the middle, fold the top corners in such that only the corners meet at the middle crease. Your paper should look like the picture above, with a little triangle shape showing underneath the touching corners. Once your paper looks similar to the picture, tightly crease these two folds.
Step 6: Fold Up Little Triangle
Remember the little triangle shape mentioned in the previous step? Fold it up and tightly crease so it holds the corners down. You can also use a small piece of scotch tape to hold these folds down.
Step 7: Turn Over and Fold in Half
Turn your airplane over (first picture) and fold it in half along the middle line (second picture). You should be folding it up towards yourself so you end up with something that looks like the picture. During this process, make sure the two corners don't slip out of the little triangle fold that's holding them down.
Step 8: Check Your Work
At this point, your plane should appear similar to the pictures. Obviously, your plane will look slightly different, but the general shape should be the same. If yours looks significantly different, it may be best to start over with a new piece of paper. If you're happy with how it looks, great! Go to the next step.
Step 9: Fold Down the First Wing
Let's make the wings! Place your plane so the nose is facing left and fold most, grab one half, and fold it down straight across, as the picture indicates. This will make the first wing. You can make your wing as big as you choose. I've found that my plane performs best if I crease the wing 0.5-1 inch above the bottom of the plane.
Step 10: Fold Down the Second Wing
Turn your plane over and place it so the nose is facing to the right. Fold down the other wing so it exactly matches your first wing. It is important that these folds are as equal as possible; otherwise, your plane will not be balanced correctly.
Step 11: Unfold Wings and Check Your Work
Unfold the wings so they are perpendicular with the body of the plane. Again, make sure your plane looks somewhat like the pictures. At this point, you have a fully functional paper airplane! Nice work! You could end here if you wanted. If you find your plane spinning out of control, and would like to give it some more stability, go to the next step.
Step 12: Fold Up Wing Tips
I've found that my paper airplanes are much more stable if I complete this step. Fold the wings down again and place your plane with the nose facing right. Fold up the very tip of the wing about a half-inch. Turn the plane over and do the same thing to the other wing. Again, it is crucial to make sure these folds are equal to each other so your plane is balanced correctly.
Step 13: Finished!
Unfold the wings again to reveal your finished product. You did it! Now you know how to make the best paper airplane known to man!
If your plane loses balance while flying, try re-folding the wings and wing tips so they are exactly even with each other.
If you'd like to modify the design, try making the plane with different sized wings, or with bigger folded-up wing tips. Bigger wings are better for gliding, while smaller wings are good for accuracy. You can also put a paper clip on the nose for better accuracy. Make the design yours, have have fun!
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50 Comments
17 days ago
Reply 17 days ago
Question 5 weeks ago on Introduction
What are the measurements of each side after making the airplane?
3 months ago
really good
Tip 1 year ago
I'd suggest adding a little weight to it. When throwing, aim slightly upwards and hold by the front about a thumbs width from the front of the paper airplane itself, once done, throw as hard as you possibly can for best results.
Tip 1 year ago on Step 13
For me it worked better with no wing tips like it says to do in step 12. It didn't really fly with the wing tips. Without the wing tips it flew a whole lot better.
Question 1 year ago
I dont understand
Maybe I didn't fold it the right way, also it didn't have a paper clip on it.
I flew it 3 times and got .18 seconds on average. :(
1 year ago on Introduction
I folded exactly as the instructions said, tossed it off a small hill, and watched it as it apparently caught a thermal. At first it was making small tight circles, gaining more altitude with each circle and eventually got too small to see it anymore. I have no idea where or even if it ever landed. When I last saw it, it was headed for the coast. I live in point Reyes station CA. So ya, I agree , it the best paper plane I've ever folded. Thanks guys. Pete casartelli Marin county CA.
Reply 1 year ago
What is your nationality? I saw that last name and I had to ask. No offense meant at all just wondering.
Question 2 years ago
I love it it’s good to make it
Answer 1 year ago
yep its a fun plane to make for sure
My plane Fly 30 of miles in the park
That would beat the world record by about 50,000 feet! It cannot fly that long because of the laws of gravity, it must come down quicker. I been making planes for so long.
best airplane i have ever made but its is a little time consuming but the work and finished product will be great
Wonderful Airplane, I added a strip of double-sided tape in between the body cavity to keep them together......seemed to work great
Its an amazing model I love it, definetly made for outside though
This was the best and it was soooo easy
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Boeing Engineers Set a New Record for Paper Plane Flight Distance
The guinness world record for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft now belongs to two boeing enginers..
Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen, both engineers at Boeing, broke a record in December that had only a little to do with their day jobs: They broke the record for farthest flight by a paper aircraft , sending a sheet of paper 88.318 meters, or almost 290 feet.
Ruble and Jensen accomplished the feat with the help of Nathaniel Erickson; all three are cited on the Guiness World Records page, though Ruble is the one doing the throwing.
From the Boeing release :
Ruble and Jensen studied origami and aerodynamics for months, putting in 400 to 500 hours of creating different prototypes to try to design a plane that could fly higher and longer. “For the Guinness World Records, we ended up going with A4-sized paper (dimensions of 210 x 297 mm) and went up to the maximum for weight, 100 grams per square meter,” Jensen said. “The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.” It takes over 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design. “Our design is a little different from your traditional fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle line down the middle. It’s pretty unique in that aspect. It’s definitely an unusual design,” Ruble said. On the day of the attempt, they achieved the record on the third throw.
There is virtually no view of the plane that Ruble used in Boeing’s video, nor in their release, but below is a video from several months ago showing Ruble constructing a plane that looks to be similar to the one used in setting the world record.
As you can see, the planes are meant to be more darts than traditional paper planes, and there is little, if any, gliding. Ruble’s tosses are all about brute strength and how far he can toss it, in addition to launch angle, which the team says optimally is around 40 degrees.
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“Once you’re aiming that high, you throw as hard as possible,” Jensen said. “It took simulations to figure that out. I didn’t think we could get useful data from a simulation on a paper airplane. Turns out, we could.”
Paper Airplanes Plans
A glider is a special kind of aircraft that has no engine. In flight, a glider has three forces acting on it as compared to the four forces that act on a powered aircraft. Both types of aircraft are subjected to the forces of lift, drag, and weight. The powered aircraft has an engine that generates thrust, while the glider has no thrust.
Types of Glider Aircraft
There are many different types of glider aircraft. Paper airplanes are the simplest aircraft to build and fly, and students can learn the basics of aircraft motion by flying paper airplanes. Building and flying balsa wood or Styrofoam gliders is an inexpensive way for students to have fun while learning the basics of aerodynamics. Hang-gliders are piloted aircraft that are launched by leaping off the side of a hill or by being towed aloft. Piloted gliders are launched by ground based catapults, or are towed aloft by a powered aircraft then cut free to glide for hours over many miles. The Wright Brothers perfected the design of the first airplane and gained piloting experience through a series of glider flights from 1900 to 1903. The Space Shuttle flies as a glider during reentry and landing; the rocket engines are used only during liftoff.
On the graphic at the top of this page, there are two paper airplane designs shown: Paper Airplane #1 (PA-1), in blue at the lower right, and Paper Airplane #2 (PA-2), in red at the upper left. Both of these aircraft are constructed by folding an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. The plans for these aircraft are provided below.
To obtain your own copy of PA-1 click here and save the Power Point file. Open Power Point and follow the directions written on the aircraft to obtain a two-sided copy of the plans from your printer. The plans will look like this:
Constructing an Aircraft
To construct the aircraft, fold on the solid lines in the prescribed numerical order (1,2,3..) always folding to the inside. Cover the number with the fold. The dashed lines on the plans indicate places to cut with a scissors. The PA-1 is designed to be highly maneuverable and employs both ailerons and a rudder. If both ailerons are turned upward, the aircraft will loop. If one is turned up and the other down, and the rudder is fixed straight, the aircraft will roll. If the rudder is turned, the aircraft will perform a banked turn.
To obtain your own copy of PA-2 click here and save the Power Point file. Open Power Point and follow the directions written on the aircraft to obtain a two-sided copy of the plans from your printer. The plans will look like this:
To construct the aircraft, fold on the solid lines in the prescribed numerical order (1,2,3..) always folding to the inside. Cover the number with the fold. The PA-2 is designed to fly fast and far.
Students should build and fly both aircraft to learn how differences in design affect the flight performance of an aircraft. After experimenting with paper airplanes, the student is ready to move up to more challenging aircraft such as wooden or Styrofoam gliders.
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an analogy for every complexity
The science behind paper airplanes.
- Explanations
Have you ever thrown a paper airplane? How did it fly? Paper airplanes vary widely in design, and those differences lead to meaningful differences in the way that they fly. Some airplanes fly quickly through the air, while others glide slowly. Sometimes, a paper airplane will tip its nose upward, leading to a stall. Why do these things happen?
The mechanics of paper airplanes are interesting because they are similar to those of most things that move quickly through the air. They have four basic forces acting on them:
via auntannie.com
The thrust comes from you when you throw the plane. Thus, the plane has no thrust in flight. The reason it doesn’t continue to slow down during flight is because it is also falling, “converting” its potential energy into thrust as it falls.
The lift comes from the difference in air pressure above and below the wing. This is caused by the shape of the wing, known as an airfoil. Lift is proportional to the size of the wing and the square of the speed of the plane.
So how do these forces affect how a plane flies? Take for example the standard paper “dart” plane:
via Wikigami
If you have flown this plane before, you know that it flies quickly, but drops to the ground relatively quickly. This can be explained as the plane having little drag, but little lift as well. More specifically, the lift and gravity forces are not perfectly aligned like they are in the first image. Rather, the center of gravity is slightly ahead of the center of lift in this plane, causing it to tip downwards and fly towards the ground.
Another popular plane is this “glider”:
via Instructables
This plane has a slow and steady flight if thrown gently or even dropped from a high place. Even without thrust from the person who throws it, it is able to maintain steady flight, if at the cost of a slight drop at the beginning. This indicates that its gravity and lift forces are aligned correctly. While it does not fly as fast, it has a larger wing surface area, which allows it to get enough lift at lower speeds.
With these ideas in mind, it’s easy to pick the correct airplane for any task. (That’s a common issue people have… right?) I once participated in a paper airplane competition based on longest total flight time. Knowing this, I instantly started folding large-winged gliders. When my plane nosedived too often, I folded it to place less paper in the front half, which moved the center of mass further back to compensate for the nosediving, which led to a steady-flying glider.
I went on to win $20 in that small competition. While, in real life, paper airplanes competitions are few and far between, this knowledge is not useful exclusively in these rare situations. Just to understand the basic mechanics at work in the planes, drones, and squirrel suits of the world is enlightening.
I have made lots of paper airplanes and lots of them failed this is a very detailed way to look at something so simple.
I agre I lyke paper airplanes because they are cool and soemtime I get them to fly. My bike is red and has stuff on the grip bars. What is yoru bike like.
are you in special ed classes?
Why was the necessary? If it was because of a few spelling errors by the previous poster than you don’t have much to talk about as your post had no capital letter at the beginning of your sentence.
Come on people show some respect
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Science is Knowledge
Soaring Science: Test Paper Planes with Different Drag
An aerodynamic activity from Science Buddies
- By Science Buddies on February 28, 2013
Key concepts Aerodynamics Planes Forces Drag Physics
Introduction Have you ever wondered what makes a paper plane fly? Some paper planes clearly fly better than others. But why is this? One factor is the kind of design used to build the plane. In this activity you'll get to build a paper plane and change its basic design to see how this affects its flight. There's a lot of cool science in this activity, such as how forces act on a plane so it can fly. So get ready to start folding!
Background The forces that allow a paper plane to fly are the same ones that apply to real airplanes. A force is something that pushes or pulls on something else. When you throw a paper plane in the air, you are giving the plane a push to move forward. That push is a type of force called thrust. While the plane is flying forward, air moving over and under the wings is providing an upward lift force on the plane. At the same time, air pushing back against the plane is slowing it down, creating a drag force. The weight of the paper plane also affects its flight, as gravity pulls it down toward Earth. All of these forces (thrust, lift, drag and gravity) affect how well a given paper plane's voyage goes. In this activity you will increase how much drag a paper plane experiences and see if this changes how far the plane flies.
Materials • Sheet of paper • Ruler • Scissors • Large open area in which to fly a paper plane, such as a long hallway, school gym or basketball court. If you're flying your paper plane outside, such as in a field, try to do it when there isn't any wind. • Something to make at least a one-foot-long line, such as a long string, another ruler, masking tape, rocks or sticks. • Paper clips (optional)
Preparation • Make a standard, "dart" design paper airplane (for instructions, go to the Amazing Paper Airplanes Web page ). • Fold your paper into the basic dart paper plane. Fold carefully and make your folds as sharp as possible, such as by running a thumbnail or a ruler along each fold to crease it. Do not bend up the tailing edge of the wings (step 6 of the online folding instructions). • Go to a large open area and, using string, a ruler, masking tape, rocks or sticks, make a line in front of you that's at least one foot long, going from left to right. This will be the starting line from which you'll fly the paper plane.
Procedure • Place your toe on the line you prepared and throw the paper plane. Did it fly very far? • Throw the plane at least four more times. Each time before you throw the plane, make sure it is still in good condition (that the folds and points are still sharp). When you toss it, place your toe on the line and try to launch the plane with a similar amount of force, including gripping it at the same spot. Did it go about the same distance each time? • Once you have a good idea of about how far your plane typically flies, change the plane’s shape to increase how much drag it experiences. To do this, cut slits that are about one inch long right where either wing meets the middle ridge. Fold up the cut section on both wings so that each now has a one-inch-wide section at the end of the wing that is folded up, at about a 90-degree angle from the rest of the wing. • Throw your modified paper plane at least five more times, just as you did before. How far does the paper plane fly now compared with before? Why do you think this is, and what does it have to do with drag? • Extra: Make paper planes that are different sizes and compare how well they fly. Do bigger planes fly farther? • Extra: Try making paper planes out of different types of paper, such as printer paper, construction paper and newspaper. Use the same design for each. Does one type of paper seem to work best for making paper planes? Does one type work the worst? • Extra: Some people like to add paper clips to their paper planes to make them fly better. Try adding a paper clip (or multiple paper clips) to different parts of your paper plane (such as the front, back, middle or wings) and then flying it. How does this affect the plane's flight? Does adding paper clips somewhere make its flight better or much worse? Observations and results Did the original plane fly the farthest? Did the plane with increased drag fly a much shorter distance?
As a paper plane moves through the air, the air pushes against the plane, slowing it down. This force is called drag. To think about drag, imagine you are in a moving car and you put your hand out the window. The force of the air pushing your hand back as you move forward is drag, also sometimes referred to as air resistance. In this activity you increased how much drag acted on the paper plane by making a one-inch-high vertical strip on both wings. For example, this is what happens when you're in a moving car with your hand out the window and you change its position from horizontal to vertical. When your hand is held out vertically, it catches a greater amount of air and experiences a greater drag than when it is horizontal. You could probably feel this, as your hand would be more forcefully pushed back as the car moves forward. This is what happened to the modified plane—it experienced a greater amount of drag, which pushed it back more than the original plane. This experiment has clearly demonstrated that altering how just one force acts on a paper plane can dramatically change how well it flies.
Cleanup Recycle the paper plane when you are done with it.
More to explore Dynamics of Flight: Forces of Flight , from NASA What Makes Paper Airplanes Fly? , from Scholastic Forces of Flight—Drag , from The Franklin Institute How Far Will It Fly? Build and Test Various Paper Planes , from Science Buddies
This activity brought to you in partnership with Science Buddies
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Short Answer
A paper airplane flies from position 6 , 10 , - 3 m to - 12 , 2 - 9 m . the net force acting on it during this flight, due to the earth and the air, is nearly constant at - 0 . 03 , - 0 . 04 , 0 . 09 n . what is the total work done on paper airplane by the earth and the air.
Total work done on the paper airplane by the Earth and the air is 1 . 4 N m .
Step by Step Solution
Step 1: definition of the work done on the paper.
Work is the force times the displacement of the item and is the quantity of energy transferred between a source of applied force and the object that this force affects.
The work done as a result of the force is given by:
W = F ⇀ ∆ r ⇀ c o s θ
Here, F is the force, and ∆ r is the displacement, and θ is the angle.
Step 2: Determine Work’s scalar product
The applied force and displacement have the same angle 0 ° , indicating that both elements move in the same direction.
Substitute θ = 0 ° into the formula of work done.
W = F ∆ r cos 0 ° = F ∆ r
Step 3: Finding displacement
The paper shifts its position. So, the displacement is given by:
∆ r = r 1 = r i
Substitute the initial and the final position vector into the above formula to find the displacement.
∆ r = - 12 , 2 - 9 - 6 , 10 - 3 = - 18 , - 8 , - 6 m
Step 4: Finding work done
Substitute F = - 0 . 03 , - 0 . 04 , - 0 . 09 N and ∆ r = - 18 , - 18 , - 6 m into W = F ∆ r to find work done.
W = - 0 . 03 , - 0 . 04 , - 0 . 09 - 18 , - 8 , - 6 = - 0 . 03 - 18 + - 0 . 04 - 8 + - 0 . 09 - 6 = 1 . 4 N m .
Hence, the total work done on the paper airplane by the Earth and the air is 1 . 4 N m .
Most popular questions for Physics Textbooks
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An automobile traveling on a highway has an average kinetic energy of . Its mass is . What is its average speed? Convert your answer to miles per hour to see whether it makes sense. If you could use all of the mc 2 rest energy of some amount of fuel to provide the car with its kinetic energy of , What mass of fuel would you need?
You throw a ball straight up, and it reaches a height of 20 m above your hand before falling back down. What was the speed of the ball just after it left your hand?
You push a box out of a carpeted room and along a hallway with a waxed linoleum floor. While pushing the crate 2 m out of the room you exert a force of 34 N ; while pushing it along the hallway you exert a force of 40 N . To slow it down you exert a force of through a distance of 2 m , opposite to the motion. How much work do you do in all?
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airplane , also called aeroplane or plane , any of a class of fixed-wing aircraft that is heavier than air, propelled by a screw propeller or a high-velocity jet, and supported by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings. For an account of the development of the airplane and the advent of civil aviation see history of flight .
The essential components of an airplane are a wing system to sustain it in flight, tail surfaces to stabilize the wings, movable surfaces to control the attitude of the plane in flight, and a power plant to provide the thrust necessary to push the vehicle through the air. Provision must be made to support the plane when it is at rest on the ground and during takeoff and landing . Most planes feature an enclosed body ( fuselage ) to house the crew, passengers, and cargo; the cockpit is the area from which the pilot operates the controls and instruments to fly the plane.
Principles of aircraft flight and operation
An aircraft in straight-and-level unaccelerated flight has four forces acting on it. (In turning, diving, or climbing flight, additional forces come into play.) These forces are lift , an upward-acting force; drag , a retarding force of the resistance to lift and to the friction of the aircraft moving through the air; weight , the downward effect that gravity has on the aircraft; and thrust , the forward-acting force provided by the propulsion system (or, in the case of unpowered aircraft, by using gravity to translate altitude into speed). Drag and weight are elements inherent in any object, including an aircraft. Lift and thrust are artificially created elements devised to enable an aircraft to fly.
Understanding lift first requires an understanding of an airfoil , which is a structure designed to obtain reaction upon its surface from the air through which it moves. Early airfoils typically had little more than a slightly curved upper surface and a flat undersurface. Over the years, airfoils have been adapted to meet changing needs. By the 1920s, airfoils typically had a rounded upper surface, with the greatest height being reached in the first third of the chord (width). In time, both upper and lower surfaces were curved to a greater or lesser degree, and the thickest part of the airfoil gradually moved backward. As airspeeds grew, there was a requirement for a very smooth passage of air over the surface, which was achieved in the laminar-flow airfoil, where the camber was farther back than contemporary practice dictated. Supersonic aircraft required even more drastic changes in airfoil shapes, some losing the roundness formerly associated with a wing and having a double-wedge shape.
By moving forward in the air, the wing’s airfoil obtains a reaction useful for flight from the air passing over its surface. (In flight the airfoil of the wing normally produces the greatest amount of lift, but propellers, tail surfaces, and the fuselage also function as airfoils and generate varying amounts of lift.) In the 18th century the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli discovered that, if the velocity of air is increased over a certain point of an airfoil, the pressure of the air is decreased. Air flowing over the curved top surface of the wing’s airfoil moves faster than the air flowing on the bottom surface, decreasing the pressure on top. The higher pressure from below pushes (lifts) the wing up to the lower pressure area. Simultaneously the air flowing along the underside of the wing is deflected downward, providing a Newtonian equal and opposite reaction and contributing to the total lift.
The lift an airfoil generates is also affected by its “angle of attack”—i.e., its angle relative to the wind. Both lift and angle of attack can be immediately, if crudely, demonstrated, by holding one’s hand out the window of a moving automobile . When the hand is turned flat to the wind, much resistance is felt and little “lift” is generated, for there is a turbulent region behind the hand. The ratio of lift to drag is low. When the hand is held parallel to the wind, there is far less drag and a moderate amount of lift is generated, the turbulence smooths out, and there is a better ratio of lift to drag. However, if the hand is turned slightly so that its forward edge is raised to a higher angle of attack, the generation of lift will increase. This favourable increase in the lift-to-drag ratio will create a tendency for the hand to “fly” up and over. The greater the speed, the greater the lift and drag will be. Thus, total lift is related to the shape of the airfoil, the angle of attack, and the speed with which the wing passes through the air.
Weight is a force that acts opposite to lift. Designers thus attempt to make the aircraft as light as possible. Because all aircraft designs have a tendency to increase in weight during the development process, modern aerospace engineering staffs have specialists in the field controlling weight from the beginning of the design. In addition, pilots must control the total weight that an aircraft is permitted to carry (in passengers, fuel, and freight) both in amount and in location. The distribution of weight (i.e., the control of the centre of gravity of the aircraft) is as important aerodynamically as the amount of weight being carried.
Thrust, the forward-acting force, is opposed to drag as lift is opposed to weight. Thrust is obtained by accelerating a mass of ambient air to a velocity greater than the speed of the aircraft; the equal and opposite reaction is for the aircraft to move forward. In reciprocating or turboprop -powered aircraft, thrust derives from the propulsive force caused by the rotation of the propeller, with residual thrust provided by the exhaust. In a jet engine , thrust derives from the propulsive force of the rotating blades of a turbine compressing air, which is then expanded by the combustion of introduced fuel and exhausted from the engine. In a rocket-powered aircraft, the thrust is derived from the equal and opposite reaction to the burning of the rocket propellant. In a sailplane, height attained by mechanical, orographic, or thermal techniques is translated into speed by means of gravity.
Acting in continual opposition to thrust is drag, which has two elements. Parasitic drag is that caused by form resistance (due to shape), skin friction, interference, and all other elements that are not contributing to lift; induced drag is that created as a result of the generation of lift.
Parasitic drag rises as airspeed increases. For most flights it is desirable to have all drag reduced to a minimum, and for this reason considerable attention is given to streamlining the form of the aircraft by eliminating as much drag-inducing structure as possible (e.g., enclosing the cockpit with a canopy, retracting the landing gear, using flush riveting, and painting and polishing surfaces). Some less obvious elements of drag include the relative disposition and area of fuselage and wing, engine, and empennage surfaces; the intersection of wings and tail surfaces; the unintentional leakage of air through the structure; the use of excess air for cooling; and the use of individual shapes that cause local airflow separation.
Induced drag is caused by that element of the air deflected downward which is not vertical to the flight path but is tilted slightly rearward from it. As the angle of attack increases, so does drag; at a critical point , the angle of attack can become so great that the airflow is broken over the upper surface of the wing, and lift is lost while drag increases. This critical condition is termed the stall .
Lift, drag, and stall are all variously affected by the shape of the wing planform. An elliptical wing like that used on the Supermarine Spitfire fighter of World War II , for example, while ideal aerodynamically in a subsonic aircraft, has a more undesirable stall pattern than a simple rectangular wing.
The aerodynamics of supersonic flight are complex. Air is compressible, and, as speeds and altitudes increase, the speed of the air flowing over the aircraft begins to exceed the speed of the aircraft through the air. The speed at which this compressibility affects an aircraft is expressed as a ratio of the speed of the aircraft to the speed of sound , called the Mach number , in honour of the Austrian physicist Ernst Mach . The critical Mach number for an aircraft has been defined as that at which on some point of the aircraft the airflow has reached the speed of sound.
At Mach numbers in excess of the critical Mach number (that is, speeds at which the airflow exceeds the speed of sound at local points on the airframe), there are significant changes in forces, pressures, and moments acting on the wing and fuselage caused by the formation of shock waves. One of the most important effects is a very large increase in drag as well as a reduction in lift. Initially designers sought to reach higher critical Mach numbers by designing aircraft with very thin airfoil sections for the wing and horizontal surfaces and by ensuring that the fineness ratio (length to diameter) of the fuselage was as high as possible. Wing thickness ratios (the thickness of the wing divided by its width) were about 14 to 18 percent on typical aircraft of the 1940–45 period; in later jets the ratio was reduced to less than 5 percent. These techniques delayed the local airflow reaching Mach 1.0, permitting slightly higher critical Mach numbers for the aircraft. Independent studies in Germany and the United States showed that reaching the critical Mach could be delayed further by sweeping the wings back. Wing sweep was extremely important to the development of the German World War II Messerschmitt Me 262, the first operational jet fighter, and to postwar fighters such as the North American F-86 Sabre and the Soviet MiG-15 . These fighters operated at high subsonic speeds, but the competitive pressures of development required aircraft that could operate at transonic and supersonic speeds. The power of jet engines with afterburners made these speeds technically possible, but designers were still handicapped by the huge rise in drag in the transonic area. The solution involved adding volume to the fuselage ahead of and behind the wing and reducing it near the wing and tail, to create a cross-sectional area that more nearly approximated the ideal area to limit transonic drag. Early applications of this rule resulted in a “wasp-waist” appearance, such as that of the Convair F-102. In later jets application of this rule is not as apparent in the aircraft’s planform.
Entertainment
Amid storm over DJ Carey write-off, AIB reveal that hundreds of others got same treatment
Around 1,900 AIB customers are part of a select group who have seen at least 90% of their debt written off, it has been confirmed.
After the revelations that hurling legend DJ Carey had millions of euro written off his debt, AIB will on Thursday tell an Oireachtas committee that 1,900 borrowers – or 1% of their financially struggling customers – have had 90% or more of their debt written-off.
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TDs had demanded to know what preferential treatment AIB had given other customers after details of the huge writedown of Mr Carey’s €9.5million debt emerged.
Deputies specifically sought answers on how many cases the bank had agreed to write off more than 90% of a customer’s debt. The managing director of retail banking at AIB, Jim O’Keeffe, will tell politicians on Thursday morning that 1% of client reductions had such high levels of debt writedowns.
While AIB cannot answer questions relating directly to Mr Carey’s finances, the bank can answer wider queries regarding debt deals. In his opening statement to the committee on Thursday, Mr O’Keeffe will say that some of the recent commentary about the bank’s writedowns has been ‘incomplete and have not presented the full picture’.
It was initially reported that Mr Carey’s debt was written down by 99%, after the bank secured a High Court judgment in 2011 for €9.5million against him, arising from a €7.85million loan.
However, sources later confirmed that it is in the region of 80%, following a sale of residential properties, including at the K Club in Kildare and Mount Juliet in Kilkenny.
The proceeds from the property sales and the €60,000 settlement represent a debt writedown of just over 80% on the total value of the outstanding debt Mr Carey owed to AIB.
Nonetheless, the Irish Daily Mail understands that AIB will on Thursday only be providing the specific figures sought – namely write-downs of over 90%, not over 80%. The value and scale in euro of those 1,900 write-downs of 90% or more is not yet known.
‘We have maintained our position that we are not enabled or entitled to discuss the details of any particular account regardless of the historic or current relationship with the customer involved,’ Mr O’Keeffe will say.
‘However, we have also reaffirmed that the bank has a proven track record in supporting customers in difficulty and, as a regulated entity, has a robust governance and policy framework in place that deals in a consistent and equitable manner with customers whose accounts become challenged.
‘The number of borrowers, other than those who went through a bankruptcy or insolvency process, who have received a reduction of over 90% of their loan amounted to circa 1,900.
‘Compared to the circa 150,000 customer resolutions already referenced, this represents a ratio of just over 1%.’
Politicians and groups representing those struggling with mortgage repayments had questioned if Mr Carey, who won five All-Ireland hurling medals with Kilkenny, received any preferential treatment from the bank, which has been a major GAA sponsor since 1991.
Mortgage-holders, who have seen their interest rates rise after a succession of hikes by the European Central Bank, have also been angered given the taxpayer’s bailout of the bank to the tune of €20.8billion.
Mr O’Keeffe will outline that when arriving at a final debt settlement the bank has several key criteria which are assessed, which includes debt write-offs. They are evaluated on a borrower’s individual circumstances that are ‘supported by full and transparent disclosure of a customer’s financial affairs’ which can be independently validated.
The customer must also ‘demonstrate a willingness to meet their contractual obligations while maintaining a reasonable and benchmarked lifestyle and in the case of a business, its viability’.
Any proposals must address ‘all of the borrower’s obligations’ with the bank and take into account any third-party debt. ‘The level of sustainable and unsustainable debt will be determined by the bank based on an assessment of the borrower’s affordability. Proposals will include a requirement on the part of the borrower to make available to the bank any windfall income that may accrue within a set period following a settlement,’ Mr O’Keeffe will say.
The Oireachtas Committee on Finance will be told that AIB has a dedicated Financial Solutions Group (FSG) that was established in the wake of the financial crisis to deal with distressed loans. Resolutions are either consensual after constructive engagement, but where the customer does not engage, the bank seeks a court order for a non-consensual retrieval of assets.
Mr O’Keeffe will say that there is a framework in place, which is reviewed annually by the board, for dealing with debt issues to ‘ensure our actions are consistent, fair, and robust’.
He will tell the committee that the policies are underpinned by ‘clear rules and principles that are applied consistently with respect to the identification, assessment, granting, management, monitoring and reporting of forbearance processes and decisions, in line with regulatory requirements’. The system has enabled around 150,000 customers to return to a sustainable financial position, according to Mr O’Keeffe.
‘FSG has also played a key role in reducing the bank’s legacy non-performing loan exposure position from €30billion at its peak post the financial crisis, to its current position of circa €300million,’ he will say.
'Is it fair?' -- TDs question AIB as bank denies having 'special' debt write-down policy
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A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like a dart, is also known as a paper dart. [1] History [ edit]
Paper Airplane Designs. A database of paper airplanes with easy to follow folding instructions, video tutorials and printable folding plans. Find the best paper airplanes that fly the furthest and stay aloft the longest. Learn how to make paper airplanes that will impress your friends. 48 out of 48 .
Paper airplanes are a fun, easy way to pass the time—but how exactly do you turn a basic piece of paper into a jet-setting masterpiece? You've come to the right place. We've put together a handy, step-by-step guide to help you fold your way to a sleek, far-flying paper airplane. In a matter of minutes, you'll be ready for take-off! Method 1
The paper airplane that stays up in the air the longest is the Stealth Glider. This design is fairly easy to fold, but a little tricky to adjust for long flights. Be patient and make tiny wing adjustments to get this design to glide very slowly through the air.
This paper airplane is a warm-up of sorts. It's simple, requires few folds, and flies well. It's just not going to win you any contests or style points. If it's your kid's first time making a real paper airplane, this is a good place to start. 1. First you fold the paper in half lengthwise, and then unfold.
How to Make 3 EASY Paper Airplanes that Fly Far — Best Planes in the World — Dagger, F-15, Arrowhead Foldable Flight 369K subscribers Subscribe 63K 7.2M views 2 years ago Fold three of the best...
Any delinquent can fold a simple aircraft, but doing it with skill and precision combines engineering, hand-eye coordination, creativity, and, of course, paper. The Best Paper Airplanes Anyone Can Make Come with us on a tree-killing spree, and put those TPS reports and expense ledgers to work entertaining your flights of fancy.
As a paper plane moves through the air, the air pushes against the plane, slowing it down. This force is called drag. To think about drag, imagine you are in a moving car and you put your hand outside of the window. The force of the air pushing your hand back as you move forward is drag.
Subscribe for more amazing videos! https://bit.ly/33SNrhK WORLD RECORD PAPER PLANEIn this video I'll show you how to fold the farthest flying paper airpl...
In the paper airplane activity students select and build one of five different paper airplane designs and test them for distance and for time aloft. Part of this activity is designed to explore NASA developed software, FoilSim, with respect to the lift of an airfoil and the surface area of a wing. Materials. calculator; ruler; graph paper ...
Paper airplanes are models of real (or imaginary) aircraft that are made from paper. Some people call it aerogami, since it is somewhat similar to the traditional Japanese craft of folding paper. Making paper airplanes is a lot of fun. They are sometimes made simply for fun or to engage in a competition with other paper planes.
Tricky part; between your two folds should be a bit of a triangle sticking downwards. Fold that triangle piece upwards and over the two corners; down the center. The picture below should show this action mid-fold; IE not a complete fold yet just for the sake of demonstrating. Your's will be all the way folded and not popping up as high as the ...
Test your paper folding technique with these paper airplane examples. Whether you are looking for a quick diversion from the grind of adulthood or are teaching a youngster DIY skills, these planes are a great way to add a little levity to your day. The examples below are all beginner or intermediate level.
Apply Now. The farthest flight by a paper aircraft is 88.31 m (289 ft 9 in), and was achieved by Dillon Ruble (USA), with the support of Nathaniel Erickson and Garrett Jensen (both USA) in Crown Point, Indiana, USA, on 2 December 2022. Dillon, Nathan and Garrett studied Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering alongside each other, and their design ...
The Paper Airplane Guy John Collins has studied both origami and aerodynamics and spent many years improving paper planes designs. One of the planes - "Suzanne" - named after his wife, has broken Guinness world record in 2012, flying 226 feet 10 inches. A week after Maker Faire, Bay Area, John will travel to Vilnius, Lithuania to ...
Saumya joshi. Image: Guinness World Record. Three engineers broke Guinness World Record for creating and throwing paper airplane flight in Crown Point, Indiana, USA, which flew 289 feet and 9 inches (88.31 meters). The paper airplane flight designed by Dillon Ruble, Nathan Erickson, and Garrett Jensen was inspired by hypersonic aerospace vehicles.
Make the Initial Paper Airplane Folds. Start by folding your square piece of origami paper in half with the white side facing up. Crease well, and unfold it. Then, turn and fold the paper in half from the other direction. Crease well, and unfold it. Next, fold the top of the paper to the middle crease. When you're finished, your paper should ...
When a paper airplane is thrown into the air. The design and structure allow it to raise its altitude which is called Lift force. To explain more about the science behind paper airplanes in here. It is happening because of its wing structure. Among all other forces, the lift force plays a major role.
As a paper plane moves through the air, the air pushes against the plane, slowing it down. This force is called drag. To think about drag, imagine you are in a moving car and you put your hand outside of the window. The force of the air pushing your hand back as you move forward is drag.
The paper airplane is said to have been invented by the Chinese in about 400 BC. It's been a great educational toy ever since then! Even the Wright Brothers used paper airplanes to build models of their first actual airplanes. This paper airplane (pictured above) is simple to make and it performs better than any other paper plane I've made.
It takes over 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design. "Our design is a little different from your traditional fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle ...
Paper airplanes are the simplest aircraft to build and fly, and students can learn the basics of aircraft motion by flying paper airplanes. Building and flying balsa wood or Styrofoam gliders is an inexpensive way for students to have fun while learning the basics of aerodynamics.
I once participated in a paper airplane competition based on longest total flight time. Knowing this, I instantly started folding large-winged gliders. When my plane nosedived too often, I folded it to place less paper in the front half, which moved the center of mass further back to compensate for the nosediving, which led to a steady-flying ...
The weight of the paper plane also affects its flight, as gravity pulls it down toward Earth. All of these forces (thrust, lift, drag and gravity) affect how well a given paper plane's voyage goes ...
Step 1: Definition of the work done on the paper. Work is the force times the displacement of the item and is the quantity of energy transferred between a source of applied force and the object that this force affects. The work done as a result of the force is given by: W = F ⇀ ∆ r ⇀ c o s θ. Here, F is the force, and ∆ r is the ...
airplane, also called aeroplane or plane, any of a class of fixed-wing aircraft that is heavier than air, propelled by a screw propeller or a high-velocity jet, and supported by the dynamic reaction of the air against its wings. For an account of the development of the airplane and the advent of civil aviation see history of flight. The essential components of an airplane are a wing system to ...
Amid storm over DJ Carey write-off, AIB reveal that hundreds of others got same treatment. Craig Hughes. 02/03/2023. Around 1,900 AIB customers are part of a select group who have seen at least 90% of their debt written off, it has been confirmed. After the revelations that hurling legend DJ Carey had millions of euro written off his debt, AIB ...