How to make a paper airplane

This essay is a "how-to" essay that fully explains in detail how to make a paper airplane. It also give history of the paper airplane and instructions on how to put it into flight.

PAPER AIRPLANE

Since early in history, man has been fascinated with the sky and possibilities of flight. Improvements in flight, especially in the 20th century, have revolutionized the world. People can go around the world in less than a day, cross oceans in a matter of hours, even go from city to city in a fraction of the driving time. This easy access and quickness of flight has caused it an immense popularity and fascination, especially with children. With the reputation flight has earned, paper airplanes have emerged. There are countless types of paper airplanes, some inspired by actual planes, other inspiring the creation of planes. From the Basic Dart to the Chopper, paper airplanes grow in complexity. There are paper airplanes with no wings to paper airplanes with more than two wings. Some that seem to fly tail first and some that do not.

From the time people have been making paper airplanes, the Basic Dart has been around. It is probably the most common paper airplane. The design is a somewhat sleek and triangular when looking from above the plane. Most people know how to make the Basic Dart because it is simple, and quick to fold. For those though, who do not know it is takes a few simple steps. First get a square piece of paper and fold it in half, and makemaking a crease in the paper. Next, unfold the paper and grab one corner then fold it to the center crease. Thirdly, get Repeat this step with the adjacent corner on the opposite side of the crease and fold the second corner to the center crease also. Now, you should have a piece of paper in the shape of a pentagon. Then, fold the two slanted edges, made by the previous two folds to the center crease. After this is done, fold the paper in half along the crease so all the previous folds are on the inside. NowAt this time, the paper should look like a right triangle. LastlyFinnally, fold one side down leaving about a half an inch of paper at the bottom and repeat the step to on the opposite side. This will make the wings and leave a body so the plane may be launched. With people gaining more interest in airplanes and aero-technology, people would begin to experiment more.

. One experiment that came to success in 1923 was the autogiro, invented by Juan de la Cierva. The autogiro was a hybrid between an airplane and a helicopter. It was partially inspired by the paper chopper that Juan de la Cierva folded. A chopper was a paper airplane that was just the propellers attached to a folded piece of paper, and it would just spin down to the ground never having a crash landing. Not all planes were inspired from paper airplanes; actually some (WHAT?) were inspired from actual planes.

An airplane that inspired the making of a paper equivalent was the American Aerodyne. The paper version became known as the Vortex, it is a wingless airplane that is thrown like a football so it could fly. The simplicity of making the airplane is surprising for the flight it can make. All that is needed is half a sheet of paper and a little bit of tape. Get a eight and half inch by eleven inch piece of paper and cut it in half so you will have a piece of paper that is four and a quarter inch by eleven inch. This would be the first step in building the Vortex. Then fold the eleven incheleven-inch side up about half an inch and make a good even crease. Then repeat this step three more times on the same side, so there will be a half inch portion of the paper that is thicker than the rest. After all this is completed roll the paper into a tube, make sure that all the folded paper is at one of the openings of the tubes. Once the paper is rolled put tape where the paper overlaps a little, make sure the Vortex is round. When throwing it just let the heavy side be the front and throw the airplane like a football. Lastly, enjoy the flight the Vortex will make. As people saw created more of the airplanes they would make give them nicknames for some, like the Vortex instead of the Aerodyne.

One such nickname came in 1908 when the Wright brothers showed their airplane off in France. Their plane flew tail first and the French thought that it looked like a duck so they called it a canard, French for duck. Thus it ended up that all planes that flew tail first were also known as canards. This ended up applying for paper airplanes too, all they need is smaller front wings than back wings and they would be considered a canard.

From the beginning of time to the present, man has looked at the sky on and how to conquer it, happy with the progress he has made but never enough to satisfy his curiosity. This curiosity ended up toin the development of the airplane and much more. One of the resulting products ended being the paper airplane, whether it was the Basic Dart, the Chopper, the Vortex, or any other paper airplane it does not matter. These paper airplanes were not always successful at first, but persistence gave way to success., soSo if at first the paper airplane does did not fly they would try it again, and again until it they succeeded.