Coolest Paper Airplane Ever

ORDINARY PAPER AIRPLANES that look like jumbo jets and fighters are one thing. This airplane is something else altogether. We don’t have an official name for it (why not make one up yourself?), but this folded wonder is something special.

HOW TO MAKE IT

Take a piece of ordinary 8½″ × 11″ paper. Hold the paper so it’s tall rather than wide, and fold the page in half lengthwise. Crease the center, using your fingernail. Unfold. That’s fold #1.

Fold the left side in to touch the center crease. You’ve just made a new left edge. That’s fold #2.

Fold the new left edge to touch the center crease, creating again a new left edge (fold #3).

Then fold the edge over the center line, and crease the top with your fingernail (fold #4).

So you can make your airplane into a circle, soften the paper. Wrap it around your hand, or pull it against the edge of a desk or table, as when you curl ribbon . This breaks down the fibers in the paper. Soon the paper will be very pliable, and you can bend it into a cylinder shape, with the folded edge on the inside. Slip one end of the fold under the other, about an inch or so, to hold everything in place . Add tape to secure. It looks like a squat tube, and the folded edge is the front of the plane .

HOW TO FLY IT

To fly, the plane needs power and spin. Hold it fully in your palm, facing forward. As you pull your arm back, ready to throw, flick your wrist and fingers. But, here’s the trick: do not let your wrist or hand bend downward. Keep them straight up. This gives the plane spiral spin.

Be ready to use your determination and patience, as it may take some practice to perfect this technique. Once you have it down, though, your unique airplane will fly beautifully. And you’ll use this same technique for tossing a football, so here you’ve learned two skills in one.

WHY IT WORKS

Airplanes—real and paper—stay in the air for two reasons. Understand these reasons, including a few technical terms, and you will possess the mental tools to design many a flying object.

Reason 1: The lift force is greater than the airplane’s weight.

Lift is what keeps the plane up in the air. It happens when the air pressure pushing the plane up is more powerful than the pressure of air pushing the plane down. Lift counters the force of gravity, which always pulls objects back down to Earth.

Reason 2: The thrust force is stronger than drag.

Thrust gets the plane moving forward. In paper airplanes, thrust is the power of your toss. In real airplanes, designers keep materials as light as possible and use powerful engines. The heavier a plane is, the more thrust it needs.

Thrust counteracts drag, which is any quality that makes it harder to cut through the air (like sideways gravity). Here’s a great way to explain drag: Turn your hand flat, palm down, and wave it back and forth, slicing the air horizontally. Then turn your hand sideways, thumbup, pinkie-down, and wave it through the air, as if you are clapping or fanning yourself. Feel how much more air is in your way when your hand is sideways? That’s drag. For airplanes, drag is the force of the air the plane must push through to get where it wants to go.

Airplanes fly when engines and wing design counter gravity and drag. Paper airplanes fly when you thrust them with gusto that overcomes gravity, and when they have a shape that is low-drag and can gracefully slice through the air. This creative design accomplishes everything you need to soar your new air flyer.