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Making Paper Airplane that Flies like a Real One
Making paper airplane is an easy and cheap hobby because a sheet of paper is all that's needed. But making paper airplane to fly higher, further and preferably land in style can be an interesting and challenging task.
So while you are waiting to save up some money to get a good RC flying airplane model, perhaps paper airplane model is a much cheaper alternative to experiment and work on at the meantime.
Here are some of the best paper airplane resource sites I have found on the Internet. They provide clear and illustrated instructions to help you make these paper airplanes easily.
Making a Simple Paper Airplane Glider
Check out my own paper airplane design (based on similar ideas from Dr Ken Blackburn's world record paper airplane) that is easy to make and glides with stability and style.
I have put it in a video clip (right) 1 year ago in YouTube and as of today, it has received more than 110,000 views. Just click on the Play button to view how it is done. Try it for yourself and throw the paper plane over your head to get a smooth and slow glide.
Do feel free to leave your comments after that. Here are a few encouraging comments I have received so far for this video:
"this plane is cool it looks great and flies brilliantly and it takes 2 minutes too build. THANKS!" - sandm45
"thNKS THIS IS THE BEST VID!!!" - sader134
"thats awesome it glides like a bird but has the speed of a jet lol mines fast thx lots!!!" - elmfuzzy1
But do not give up if it does not fly well the first time, it takes a good fold and a good throw to make a great flight!
(For kids and parents, do beware of some stuff that are inappropriate in youtube.com)
How to make the Record-Breaking Paper Airplane
Feel free to download this World Record Breaking Paper Airplane (originally folded by Ken Blackburn). I have created some special designs and converted them as PDF files.
Try folding and see if you come close to the world record of keeping the paper airplane gliding in the air for 27.6s. This paper airplane design looks simple but it takes some skills and strength to make a good fold and a great throw.
- Red Arrows Design (24 KB pdf file)
- Blue Angels Design (41 KB pdf file)
- Weapon Payload Design (78 KB pdf file)
- Set Your World Record Design (83 KB pdf file)
- Set Your World Record with Passengers Photo Design (84 KB pdf file)
How to make the Best Paper Airplane in the World
This is the famous How to Make the Best Paper Airplane website where you can learn to make this paper airplane in just 33 simple steps. You can also get to understand what makes this paper airplane flies so well.
It took me only less than 15 mins to master the fold and I really enjoyed tossing this paper airplane around with my kids. Some time back, we went to a park and I had someone who asked, "Can this really fly?" Without explaining much, I loft it as high as I could and she responded, "Wow! It really flies!" Try it and I am sure you will attract much attention and gather many fun-loving kids around you in no time.
You can also find a good number of colorful designs for download (like the Safari design above) under the section Color designer sheets.
How to Make Paper Airplane that Looks Like the Real Ones
Take a look at this Amazing Paper Airplane site owned by Mr Kyong H Lee. He offers many well-known airplane types that can be constructed in paper form such as the F-16 Falcon, the F-18 Hornet, F-117A Night Hawk and even the space shuttle. These paper airplanes resemble pretty close to the real ones and they are flyable.
How to Make a High Performance Paper Airplane Glider
Here is a site that gives very clear and photographic instructions on how to make a high performance paper airplane glider called the OmniWing Paper Airplane. This paper glider was designed by the hang glider pilot himself who owned the site.
This paper glider was a "distance champion, having won two consecutive paper airplane contests in the early 1970's". The pilot designer is very kind now to pass on the secret of this "distance champion" to everyone on the Net.
How to Make a 'Toothful' Paper Airplane
Here is where you can learn how to make a Sabertooth Paper Airplane. By the mere look of it, the design does not seem impressive (I guess it is due its 'teethy' look). But once you put it on the 'runway' of your hand, it is ready to go like an F4 Phantom. So don't judge the book by its cover.
This paper airplane design is 30 years old but it flies like a modern jet plane. I took less than 5 mins to get this paper plane on my 'runway'. Try to swing it hard towards the ground to observe how it gains lift to fly upwards again.
Lately, the Sabertooth has started to grow more teeth. If you want to find other modifications of the Sabertooth paper plane, check out the SaberTEETH site where you get to download 6 other Saber planes in pdf format.How to Make a Dragon Paper Airplane
Here is an award winning and child-friendly Alex's Paper Airplane website where you can learn to make a Dragon Paper Airplane designed by Alex Schultz. But be careful not to aim this little flying 'dragon' at anyone. Be sure not to miss Alex's paper airplane tips too.
How to make the Jline Defender Paper Airplane
This is a Defender paper airplane designed website by Judson Lee. There is a valuable page written by him on Smoothing out the lines which is often overlooked by many. He believes that by smoothing out the lines, it can dramatically make a difference in the way the paper plane flies.
This website also provides other designs of paper planes with well-illustrated instructions and difficulty level highlighted.
Note : You might encounter a number of pop up windows when you go to this site.
How to Achieve the best Flight Dynamics
Want to know how you can determine your best toss angle, thrust and elevator? Well, here is an interesting Paper Airplane Simulator which you can use to find this out. I tried it (Set my parameters as 0, 50, 7 and the paper airplane could fly a loop and achieve a distance of about 85 ft, maintaining aloft in the 'air' for 7.4 secs. ). Looks like a pretty interesting paper airplane simulator to me.
I am not sure how accurate this simulator is mathematically but you can try it and challenge your friends to see who can achieve the greatest distance, altitude and time in flight. Then note the best parameters combination (Angle of Toss, Thrust and Elevator angle) and try it with your paper airplane to see if it come closed in the real world. (Only one problem though, I'm not sure how you can measure thrust in actual throw).
How to Make your Paper Airplane Fly Better
Want to know how you can to design your own unique paper airplane that might fly better and further?
Before you can do that, you need to understand the principles and factors that affects the way these paper airplanes fly. Check out these two sites
They will briefly explain the physics behind all the paper airplane flight dynamics.Having understood the principles, you can start to make your own modifications to all those paper airplanes you have made and see if they will fly much better than before.
Then you might want to put your paper airplane to a test. Here is another site that can give you an idea how to go about doing a "Free Flight" Model Testing in a wind tunnel.
How do I construct a wind tunnel ? Well, here is one place that teaches you how you can make your own simple wind tunnel at home or at school. If you cannot find a furnace pipe, you might want to make use of old unused card boxes to confine the airflow area instead.
For all you know, you might become the next Wright brother in the making to invent the next generation airplane prototype.
It is possible to fly without motors,but not without knowledge and skill.
- Wilbur Wright (1867-1912).
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