Paper plane

A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane or paper dart in American English, or paper aeroplane in British English) is a fun toy made from a single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. People of all ages enjoy making and throwing these simple gliders. They usually look like a small nose-heavy triangle and are thrown through the air like a dart.

Paper planes are a great way to learn a little about flight and aerodynamics, even if you don’t know it! By folding and throwing a paper plane, you can see how shape and weight affect how far and straight it flies. This makes them a popular activity in schools and at home for fun and learning.

These toy aircraft are also very easy to make. With just a sheet of paper and a bit of folding, anyone can create their own paper plane and experiment with different designs to see which one flies the best.

History

Paper airplanes have been made since the mid-1800s. An old American children's book from 1864 even described how to make them.

Famous scientists have also made paper airplanes. Once, a scientist named Ludwig Prandtl made a small paper airplane during a fancy dinner. It landed on the shirt of an important French minister, surprising everyone there. Over time, people have made paper airplanes better and more stylish.

Advanced paper gliders

Paper gliders have gone through three main changes from 1930 to 1988: better flight performance, making smaller models, and using computer design tools. People also kept improving how they fold paper planes, sometimes adding more folds or using special cuts.

New technology helped make better paper planes. Easy computer design tools, cheap glues, printers for making parts, and the internet for sharing ideas all made a big difference.

Paper is different from balsa wood, which is another material used for model planes. Paper is heavier, so it can create more drag, but it is also stronger for its thickness. A sheet of office paper can be as strong as airplane aluminum, and thick card can be like steel for tiny models.

Simple paper planes don’t fly very far, usually only about 7.5 times their length. But by changing how they are made, people have made them fly much farther. Two professors, Ninomiya and Mathews, used science to design planes that could fly over 85 meters. Their work is still used today.

White Wings

In the late 1960s in Japan, Professor Yasuaki Ninomiya created a special kind of paper plane called "White Wings." These planes are made from cut and glued paper templates, following airplane design rules. They were first sold in the 1970s and are still made today. Early models were drawn by hand, but later ones used computer design. Some models even had working propellers. These planes often use a light piece of wood to keep their shape and can fly without extra weight.

Paper Pilot

In 1984, Professor E.H. Mathews in South Africa wrote a book called Paper Pilot about high-performance paper planes. The book was very popular and led to more books. The planes in his books were designed using special wind tunnels and computer tools. Some planes could fly up to 120 meters when launched with a bungee cord, which helps them fly far.

Paper helicopters (autogyros)

The first known paper helicopter was made by Richard K Neu in 1967. It spins as it falls. Later, James Zongker made a paper helicopter that could fly forward. Professor Mathews also made a paper helicopter called the Papercopter, which could fly quickly and far.

World records

People have tried to make paper planes fly far and long for many years.

Time aloft

Ken Blackburn held a world record for 13 years by keeping a paper plane in the air for 27.6 seconds. As of March 2023, Takuo Toda from Japan holds the record with a flight of 29.2 seconds.

Distance

Stephen Kreiger held the distance record from 2003 with a throw of 207 feet and 4 inches. In 2012, Joe Ayoob broke it with a throw of 226 feet and 10 inches. In 2022, Kim Kyu Tae broke the record again with a throw of 252 feet and 7 inches.

The rules for the world record are: use A4 paper, with a maximum weight of 100 g/m squared, and only 25mm×30mm of tape allowed.

Aerodynamics

Paper airplanes are a special kind of model plane. Like other model planes, they feel the same forces when they fly. But because they are made from paper, they act a little differently.

When a paper airplane is flying, it feels four main forces:

• Thrust, which pushes the plane forward;
• Aerodynamic lift, which pushes the plane up;
• Weight, which pulls the plane down; and
• Air drag, which slows the plane down.

These forces work together and can cause small changes in the paper airplane’s flight. You can change how a paper airplane flies by bending or cutting the edges of its wings or tail.

Some common changes are like those used on real gliders, such as dihedral angle, ailerons, elevators, and rudders.

Freestyle paper airplanes can have unusual flight paths. Some designs use things like elastic bands to launch them, or can glide along the edge of cardboard.

Space flight

Scientists and enthusiasts have dreamed of launching paper planes from space. In 2008, a test showed that a paper plane could be strong enough for such a journey. Japan’s space agency thought about trying to launch these planes from the International Space Station, but decided to wait because it would be very hard to track the planes during their long trip back to Earth.

In 2011, 200 paper planes were sent up from a weather balloon 23 miles above Germany. These special planes could fly steadily even in very strong winds. They had small chips to store data, and some were later found in many places across Europe, as well as in Canada, India, South Africa, and Australia.

In 2015, a school club in the United Kingdom set a world record by launching a paper plane to an amazing height of 35,043 metres (114,970 feet).