Paper plane

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Diagram of a traditional paper plane.

A paper plane, paper aeroplane, or paper airplane is a toy plane made out of paper. It is perhaps the most common form of aerogami, a branch of origami (the Japanese art of paper folding). In Japanese, it is called 紙飛行機 (kami hikoki; kami=paper, hikoki=airplane).

It is popular due to its being one of the easiest types of origami for a novice to master. The most basic paper plane would only take at most six steps to "correctly" complete. The term "paper plane" in recent times can also refer to those made from cardboard.

Contents

1 History

2 Types of paper planes

History

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Kites were used by the Chinese to fly materialized objects in the air.

The use of paper to create toys is believed to have originated 2,000 years ago in China, where kites were a popular form of entertainment. Although these can be considered to be evidence for the modern paper plane, no one can be sure where exactly this invention originated; designs for velocity, lift and fashion have been improved by the years gone by.

The earliest known date of the creation of paper planes was said to have been in 1909. However, the most accepted version of the creation was two decades later in 1930 by Jack Northrop (Co-founder of Lockheed Corporation). Northrop has used paper planes as tests so that he could discover ideas for flying real-life aircraft.

Types of paper planes

Traditional

This type of paper plane only takes a person six steps (for correct procedure), but can take only five steps to complete without folding a guide to help the folder divide a paper into two parts. A rectangular piece of paper such as A3, A4 or Letter (preferably A4 or Letter) would be used.

Instructions

The person who is folding the piece of paper in these instructions is referred to as "the folder".

The folder should leave a guide crease. This can be accomplished by laying the paper in portrait position and folding the left part of the paper over to the right so that it overlaps the other side completely.
The folder then should uncrease the sides again and fold the top left corner of the page so that it touches the crease in the middle, and vice versa for the right side.
The folder should crease the paper plane back to the position where the folder had left the guide marks, then they should put wings on the paper plane, the most vital part of this procedure.
Still in portrait position the person should fold the non-pointed bit of the paper plane (the bottom part) so it creases over the guide part but inverted outwards so that the wings are not internally in the paper plane but externally. A variety of this basic paper plane, however not the same as described before can be shown in pictures with instructions at Ken Blackburn's Website.

DC-03

There have been many people who have claimed to create the "World's best paper plane". One instance of this is the DC-03 model (DC-03 Model paper plane) featuring large gliding wings and perhaps a unique feature to paper planes, a tail. There is unfortunately no international paper plane federation or association to verify these claims as official or at all true.

Aerodynamics

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The B-2 Spirit is used by Blackburn as an example of a stable plane.

Although the DC-03 model has wings, the Guinness world record holder Ken Blackburn disagrees with the decision to put a 'tail' on the paper plane. His explanation of paper plane aerodynamics on his website mentions that the tail is not needed. He uses the real-life B-2 Spirit flying wing bomber as an example, stating that the weights along the wing to put more weight foward and therefore make the plane more stable. (Note: paper airplanes do not need a tail primarily because they typically have a large, thin fuselage, which acts to prevent yaw, and wings along the entire length, which prevents pitch. The B-2 is actually extremely unstable, and requires computer control simply to stay aloft.)

Independently, Edmond Hui invented a Stealth Bomber-like paper airplane called the Paperang in 1977 (http://paperang.com), based on hang glider aerodynamics. Uniquely, it has properly controlled airfoil sections, high aspect ratio wings, and a contruction method designed to allow the builder to vary every aspect of its shape. It was the subject of a book, Amazing Paper Airplanes in 1987, and a number of newspaper articles in 1992. It is ineligible for most paper airplane competitions due to the use of a staple, but it has extremely high gliding performance exceeding glide ratios of 12 to 1 with good stability.

Although it is a common view that light paper planes go further than heavy ones, this is considered to be untrue by Blackburn. Blackburn's record breaking 20 year old paper plane (Instructions) was based on his belief that the best planes had short wings and are "heavy" at the point of the launch phase in which the thrower throws the paper plane into the air, and at the same time longer wings and a "lighter" weight would allow the paper plane to have better flight times but this cannot be thrown hard with much pressure into the air as a "heavy" weighted launch phase. According to Blackburn, "For maximum height and for a good transition to gliding flight, the throw must be within 10 degrees of vertical" — which shows that a speed of at least 60 miles per hour (about 100 kilometres per hour) is the amount needed to throw the paper plane successfully.

World record

There have been many attempts over the years to break the barriers of throwing a paper plane for the longest time aloft in the air. Ken Blackburn held this Guinness world record for 13 years (1983–1996) and had regained the record on the 8th of October 1998 by keeping his paper plane aloft for 27.6 seconds (Indoor). This was confirmed by Guinness officials and a CNN report. The paper plane that Blackburn used in this record breaking attempt was a paper plane that can be considered to be categorized under the "glider" category.

Sources

Ken Blackburn Ken Blackburn's Website Retrieved Nov. 15, 2004. (Frames Website)