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As I mentioned above, not all my world record planes can set a record. Most have flight times from 10-14 seconds. Maybe 10% can get to 15-17 seconds, and about 1% can get to 20 seconds. One of the goals of my research and testing is to be able to make the "good" planes on a repeatable basis. The best way I know to do this is to understand the physics involved, and then work on solutions. I have found that the physics involved can get quite complex, and it is difficult to get definite answers from my tests. I do think I am making progress, and hope to continue to improve my understanding and ability to consistently make good planes. Now that you have made some paper airplanes, you child may be interested in trying to fold other origami models. There are several easy origami models for kids including the cat face, sailboat, and flapping bird. Low aspect ratio wings are easier to fold. One of the reasons we make paper airplanes is because they are fast and easy to build (gee, is that two reasons?). Paper airplane gliding performance is not usually very important. We usually want a plane that does a good job of flying across the room, and aren't too concerned if another paper airplane design (which would be more difficult to build) could have made the same flight more gracefully. Notice that for my world record paper airplane gliding performance is extremely important, but a low aspect ratio wing is needed to withstand the high launch speed (more on the specifics of the world record plane later). In short, very well! My son is slightly older than the target age group (he’s 11), but he enjoyed making the various different designs and seeing how they flew differently according to how hard you throw them. The default seemed to be ‘I’m going to hold this like a javelin and hurl it as hard as I can’, but he soon got the idea that doesn’t always work.
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 andhastily construct one from the poor memory of your youth — one that takes a disappointing nosedive as soon as it leaves yourfingertips.Instead, teach them the art of making a plane that can truly go the distance.Stability means the plane, if disturbed, will return to its original state. For pitch stability it means the plane will seek a single airspeed. A plane which is unstable in pitch will either pitch up into a stall, or nose dive, but won't settle out anywhere in between. A stable airplane will tend to oscillate up and down a few times, but converge on a steady flight speed. Many typical paper airplane designs are stable, but just barely. As a plane becomes more and more stable, it wants to fly faster and faster. To counter this tendency, up elevator must be used to produce a good trim airspeed. This is why many of the classic paper airplane designs are nearly neutrally stable. Few people realize good pitch stability requires a heavy nose and some up elevator. The classic designs rely on the small inherent "up elevator" effect (positive zero lift pitching moment) resulting from the swept wing, and possibly the airfoil shape. Thus many classic paper airplanes can be flown with no elevator adjustment. Sometimes they fly well, many times they don't, and they always have poor stability. The finished Harrier shown below. It has cool pointed wings and has great stability because of the triangle on the bottom. Instructions for folding “Suzanne,” the plane that shatteredthe previous world record by flying an unprecedented 226 feet,10 inches, and garnered more than three million views on YouTube Learn how to make paper airplanes with these easy instructions. Select the plane you want and get ready for takeoff. Be careful with the ones that are pointy, they can hurt! Most planes are best indoors, but some will surpise you outdoors.
First you fold the paper in half lengthwise, and then unfold. This initial crease is simply a guideline for the next folds.There are few technical references for paper airplanes. Naturally paper airplane books talk about paper airplane aerodynamics, but usually in a simplistic manner. There are many reference to low speed flight which are applicable to paper airplanes. Here are a few.
This is a very good reference, as hand launched gliders and paper airplanes have the same aerodynamics] A number was devised which gives the relative importance of viscosity in fluid flow. It is called the Reynolds Number, and it is the ratio of momentum forces to viscous forces in a fluid. The bigger the number, the less influential the viscosity. The viscosity is essentially a constant for a fluid (it changes a bit with temperature), but momentum is proportional to the speed of a fluid over a surface times the distance it has traveled over the surface. For air it is roughly: By comparison the wings of a four passenger airplane have a Reynolds Numbers of up to about 6,000,000. Also, remember the transition from laminar to turbulent? That happens at a Reynolds number of no less than about 10,000, so the first ½ to ¼ of the flow over a paper airplane's wing is laminar. Since the Reynolds Number is much less than for full sized airplanes, this means viscosity is much more dominant, resulting in more drag, and more difficulty in creating lift. A collection of easy-to-fold paper airplane designs and innovative theories of flight, including the author’s Guinness World Record-breaking airplane. Features 16 tear-out model planes.
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The Awesome Paper Airplane Book for Kids by Stefania Luca is aimed at children aged 6-9. It contains instructions for 15 paper airplane designs of varying difficulty, and comes with paper to make them with. The planes are grouped as either Dart Planes, Glider Planes, or Stunt Planes, according to how they behave when you throw them. On that basis, I was looking forward to folding some of the paper airplanes in this book with my youngest son and I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together. If I’m honest I was a bit excited myself too – who doesn’t love a good paper plane?
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