How to Make a Paper Plane
A paper plane is a plane - made from paper! It is an entertaining piece constructed by most children at one point or another. In my opinion, it is a valuable lesson in patience, focus, playfulness, and engineering - I have enjoyed making these at childhood and I hope this guide will help you fly your masterpiece!
Supplies
- A4 extra smooth heavy weight paper - 10 pages, for mistakes and the option of creating a fleet of planes :)
- Ruler (not a must, recommended for perfectionists).
The First Fold
Setup your paper on a flat surface (preferably dark, so you can see the better with the contrast). and fold it in half all the way across its length, the fold seem created will now be referenced as the plane base.
Note: take your time and make sure every fold through this guide as accurate as possible, you may use a ruler for even an even more precise fold but it is not a must, this note holds for the rest of this guide - aviation requires precision!
First Sign of Wings
Time for some wings - we do another fold, from one of the open corners towards the center, such that an isosceles triangle is created.
Note: take your time and make sure the fold is precise, aviation requires accuracy! (you may use your ruler for a flat neat fold)
Symmetry
In the paper plane world - symmetry the key for balance, we repeat step 2 for the other side of plane to get a second wing, make sure you fold the exact mirror side of the folded paper.
keynote: make sure corners and lines are aligned as accurate as possible!
Aerodynamics
We now make a second fold to each of our right trapezoid sides of the page. This is done in the same manner as in the previous step, simply fold the non right angled edge of the trapezoid towards our the plane base.
Symmetry and Aerodynamics
You've guessed it, it is time to repeat step 4 on the other side!
keynote: this is a trickier fold as alignment is required in multiple intersections, take your time, and make sure the front tip of the plane remains pointy!
We Got Wings!
It is time for our final two symmetrical folds,our right trapezoid sides of the page are now steeper, we repeat the same fold as before but instead of starting the fold in the tip of our plane, we make a fold 2 fingers width above our plane base, the exact measurement of which height is best for the fold remains somewhat of an open question, maybe on your next plane you can try a different height.
keynote: the fold line needs to be straight, but parallelism of the line with the plane base is not a must, it should be somewhat aligned but figuring the best angle is another open question..
Final Step of Symmetry
You know the drill, repeat step 6 on the other side!
keynote: make sure the height of the fold is identical to the one from step 6, we don't want wings with different shapes!
Fly Me to the Moon
That's it! lightly unfold the two last folds made and air out your paper boeing, we are ready for liftoff!