DailyDirt: Flying Paper Airplanes

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Wed, Mar 28th 2012 5:00pm — Michael Ho

Folding paper has been taken to an extreme in recent years, and a few entertaining examples involve making paper airplanes. Almost anyone can make a paper airplane (even some robots can do it), but to really make your mark, you have to do something pretty extraordinary with construction paper. Here are just a few world records for paper airplanes.

A giant 45-foot long paper airplane was released from a helicopter over the Arizona desert, promoting the PIMA Air and Space Museum. It didn't fly for very long, but it was big enough that the helicopter pilot jettisoned the big paper plane slightly earlier than planned because it was pulling on the helicopter a bit too much. [url]
A Japanese engineer, Takuo Toda, flew his paper airplane which stayed aloft for 27.9 seconds -- setting a world record in 2009. But for Toda, 28 seconds is nothing compared to his dream of launching a paper plane from the edge of space.... [url]
Throwing a paper airplane that can fly over 226 feet isn't easy, but it can be done -- and it beats the previous record of just over 207 feet (set in 2003). Hmm. How far can a robot arm throw a paper airplane? [url]
To discover more cool sites about aviation, check out what's currently flying around StumbleUpon. [url]

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: origami, paper airplanes, paper planes, pima air and space museum, world records

10 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2012 @ 6:53pm

Longest flown/thrown...
Hmmmmm ~200 feet is nothing. An Aerobie holds the record for an object thrown -- wihout a "velocity aid" -- at 1,333 feet.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobie

So just make an Aerobie out of paper next time, mmkay?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
- Michael Ho (profile), 28 Mar 2012 @ 7:00pm
  
  Re: Longest flown/thrown...
  Actually, it looks like the record for a thrown object is a boomerang (which seems strange if it returned to the thrower...) at just over 1400 ft.
  
  see Guinness World Records
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]
  - Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2012 @ 7:07pm
    
    Re: Re: Longest flown/thrown...
    Depends the Aborigine boomerang was never designed to return in fact it doesn't, the design was used to grant more flight stability if I recall it correctly, a true boomerang is a cross shape(not a V shape) and that one does return.
    
    ps: Thanks for the BBC documentaries on that one, although I believe Discovery also had something about it.
    [ link to this | view in chronology ]
Michael Ho (profile), 28 Mar 2012 @ 7:12pm

I suppose I should have included this project, too. Oh well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1328399/British-team-send-paper-plane-edge-space- flies-Earth.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2012 @ 7:23pm

Quote:
An important distinction should be made between returning boomerangs and non-returning boomerangs. Returning boomerangs actually do fly and are examples of the earliest heavier than air man made flight. A returning boomerang has two or more airfoil wings arranged so that the spinning creates unbalanced aerodynamic forces that curve its path so that it travels in an elliptical path and returns to its point of origin when thrown correctly. While a throwing stick can also be shaped overall like a returning boomerang, it is designed to travel as straight as possible so that it can be aimed and thrown with great force to bring down game. Its surfaces therefore are symmetrical and not uneven like the airfoils which give the returning boomerang its characteristic curved flight.

Wikipedia: Boomerang
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Anonymous Coward, 28 Mar 2012 @ 7:31pm

Paper such a wonderfull material.

People don't give it much thought but, if you glue a lot of them together it becomes wood, and the various way to bind it together goes from high tech resins to simple flour and water.

Speaking of witch reminds me of the sticky rice mortar used to construct the Great Wall of China that is still standing today. I wonder if I can use that stuff to make crack repairs, just have to find the lime ratio to apply to it so it doesn't get mold.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Bergman (profile), 28 Mar 2012 @ 9:39pm

I once won an outdoor paper airplane contest when a random gust caught my entry. Last we saw of the thing, it was clearing the treetops (over a hundred feet up) and heading northwards faster than any of us could run.

I had complained earlier about them moving the competition outside on a windy day, it wasn't a fair test...shows what I know, eh?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pixelation, 28 Mar 2012 @ 11:29pm

Years ago I spent about an hour tossing paper airplanes from a friends 45th story apartment in Chicago. They went WAAAAY further than 200 feet. We had a lot of fun with it. I remember driving over one seven blocks away the next morning. Some of them would shoot straight up from the updrafts before sailing away.

I suppose I better call Guinness...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Stephen, 29 Mar 2012 @ 10:16am

airplanes at shea
I'm with Pixelation. Back in the 80s I went to calendar night at Shea, which meant by the fifth inning everyone in the upper deck beyond first base was making months into airplanes and trying to set distance records. The thing is, Shea had those swirling winds, so every time an airplane reached the field, the wind knocked it down hard. Then, late in the game, one got through the wind and soared over first. The crowd erupted, which totally confused the players until they saw the plane soaring across the in field. I think they must have called time, because Ray Knight was certainly watching it cruise over third and into the lower level boxes. Another eruption of applause. That plane went at least 250'.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
airplane advertising (profile), 2 Nov 2020 @ 10:56pm

airplane advertising
Airplane advertising promotes your business through Aerial services or plane advertising. Throw the airplane advertising. You can show what services your business offers.
source: https://www.aerialservicesva.net/
[ link to this | view in chronology ]