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For New Insights into Aerodynamics, Scientists Turn to Paper Airplanes

A series of experiments using paper airplanes reveals new aerodynamic effects--findings that enhance our understanding of flight stability.

Findings Unveil Mechanisms that Explain Flight Stability

A series of experiments using paper airplanes reveals new aerodynamic effects, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings enhance our understanding of flight stability and could inspire new types of flying robots and small drones.

“The study started with simple curiosity about what makes a good paper airplane and specifically what is needed for smooth gliding,” explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and an author of the study , which appears in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics . “Answering such basic questions ended up being far from child’s play. We discovered that the aerodynamics of how paper airplanes keep level flight is really very different from the stability of conventional airplanes.”

“Birds glide and soar in an effortless way, and paper airplanes, when tuned properly, can also glide for long distances,” adds author Jane Wang, a professor of engineering and physics at Cornell University. “Surprisingly, there has been no good mathematical model for predicting this seemingly simple but subtle gliding flight.”

Since we can make complicated modern airplanes fly, the researchers say, one might think we know all there is to know about the simplest flying machines. 

“But paper airplanes, while simple to make, involve surprisingly complex aerodynamics,” notes Ristroph.

The paper’s authors began their study by considering what is needed for a plane to glide smoothly. Since paper airplanes have no engine and rely on gravity and proper design for their movement, they are good candidates for exploring factors behind flight stability.

To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers conducted lab experiments by launching paper airplanes with differing centers of mass through the air. The results, along with those from studying plates falling in a water tank, allowed the team to devise a new aerodynamic model and also a “flight simulator” capable of predicting the motions.

A video and image showing the experimental results may be downloaded from Google Drive .

To find the best design, the researchers placed different amounts of thin copper tape on the front part of the paper planes, giving them varied center of mass locations. Lead weights added to the plates in water served the same purpose.

“The key criterion of a successful glider is that the center of mass must be in the ‘just right’ place,” Ristroph explains. “Good paper airplanes achieve this with the front edge folded over several times or by an added paper clip, which requires a little trial and error.”

In the experiments, the researchers found that the flight motions depended sensitively on the center of mass location. Specifically, if the weight was at the center of the wing or only displaced somewhat from the middle, it underwent wild motions, such as fluttering or tumbling. If the weight was displaced too far toward one edge, then the flier quickly dove downwards and crashed. In between, however, there was a “sweet spot” for the center of mass that gave stable gliding.

The researchers coupled the experimental work with a mathematical model that served as the basis of a “flight simulator,” a computer program that successfully reproduced the different flight motions. It also helped explain why a paper airplane is stable in its glide. When the center of mass is in the “sweet spot,” the aerodynamic force on the plane’s wing pushes the wing back down if the plane moves upward and back up if it moves downward.

“The location of the aerodynamic force or center of pressure varies with the angle of flight in such a way to ensure stability,” explains Ristroph. 

He notes that this dynamic does not occur with conventional aircraft wings, which are airfoils—structures whose shapes work to generate lift. 

“The effect we found in paper airplanes does not happen for the traditional airfoils used as aircraft wings, whose center of pressure stays fixed in place across the angles that occur in flight,” Ristroph says. “The shifting of the center of pressure thus seems to be a unique property of thin, flat wings, and this ends up being the secret to the stable flight of paper airplanes.”

“This is why airplanes need a separate tail wing as a stabilizer while a paper plane can get away with just a main wing that gives both lift and stability,” he concludes. “We hope that our findings will be useful in small-scale flight applications, where you may want a minimal design that does not require a lot of extra flight surfaces, sensors, and controllers.”

The paper’s other authors were Huilin Li, a doctoral candidate at NYU Shanghai, and Tristan Goodwill, a doctoral candidate at the Courant Institute’s Department of Mathematics.

The work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (DMS-1847955, DMS-1646339).

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On the eleventh day of Christmas —

Experiments with paper airplanes reveal surprisingly complex aerodynamics, how these gliders keep level flight is different from the stability of airplanes..

Jennifer Ouellette - Jan 4, 2023 10:06 pm UTC

Drop a flat piece of paper and it will flutter and tumble through the air as it falls, but a well-fashioned paper airplane will glide smoothly. Although these structures look simple, their aerodynamics are surprisingly complex. Researchers at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences conducted a series of experiments involving paper airplanes to explore this transition and develop a mathematical model to predict flight stability, according to a March paper published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

“The study started with simple curiosity about what makes a good paper airplane and specifically what is needed for smooth gliding," said co-author Leif Ristroph . "Answering such basic questions ended up being far from child’s play. We discovered that the aerodynamics of how paper airplanes keep level flight is really very different from the stability of conventional airplanes.”

Nobody knows who invented the first paper airplane, but China began making paper on a large scale around 500 BCE, with the emergence of origami and paper-folding as a popular art form between 460 and 390 BCE. Paper airplanes have long been studied as a means of learning more about the aerodynamics of flight. For instance, Leonardo da Vinci famously built a model plane out of parchment while dreaming up flying machines and used paper models to test his design for an ornithopter. In the 19th century, British engineer and inventor Sir George Cayley —sometimes called the "father of aviation"—studied the gliding performance of paper airplanes to design a glider capable of carrying a human.

An amusing "scientist playing with paper planes" anecdote comes from physicist Theodore von Kármán . In his 1967 memoir The Wind and Beyond , he recalled a formal 1924 banquet in Delft, The Netherlands, where fellow physicist Ludwig Prandtl constructed a paper airplane out of a menu to demonstrate the mechanics of flight to von Kármán's sister, who was seated next to him. When he threw the paper plane, "It landed on the shirtfront of the French minister of education, much to the embarrassment of my sister and others at the banquet," von Kármán wrote.

While scientists have clearly made great strides in aerodynamics—particularly about aircraft—Ristroph et al . noted that there was not a good mathematical model for predicting the simpler, subtler gliding flight of paper airplanes. It was already well-known that displacing the center of mass results in various flight trajectories, some more stable than others. “The key criterion of a successful glider is that the center of mass must be in the ‘just right’ place,” said Ristroph . “Good paper airplanes achieve this with the front edge folded over several times or by an added paper clip, which requires a little trial and error.”

Cool Science: Paper airplanes, insect wings and the future of tiny drones

Conduct your own aerodynamics experiment at home

For nearly 200 years, in the great pursuit of knowledge about aerodynamics, researchers have been fascinated by paper airplanes. Even the simplest design – a plain sheet of paper with no wings or fins, nothing resembling a modern airplane – can provide insights into complex aerodynamic principles.

A rectangular sheet of paper will tumble to the ground like confetti, but adding just the right amount of weight, in just the right location, affects how the paper flies.

Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University and self-described paper airplane fanatic, said the idea to study the aerodynamics of a falling sheet of paper began with curiosity about the movement.

“The magic that makes a paper airplane glide and not flutter is how you weight it. You don’t need all the other aspects,” Ristroph said. “It feels like someone must have observed this before because it seems so basic but I couldn’t find it. It’s worth understanding, then.”

And while designing a passenger airplane that resembles a sheet of paper is a horrible idea, he said, the research could contribute to new ways of thinking about the design of simple aircraft such as tiny drones.

Observations in air and water

Researchers added strips of metallic tape to one of the long edges of a rectangular sheet to create varying degrees of front weight. When dropped, each sheet moves in a unique way. “There is kind of a magic spot for the balance point where you can get the best glide. If the balance point is too close to the middle, you will see fluttering and tumbling motions. If the balance point is too far forward, it will nose-dive and crash. The best point is about halfway between the middle of the sheet and the front edge. Then you will see a nice glider,” Ristroph said.

Part of Ristroph’s work for his doctorate in physics was studying insect flight and how flapping wings affect flight control and stability. The paper airplane study was not part of his planned research under a U.S. National Science Foundation grant , but the relationship between insect wings and falling paper stood out, and the results contribute to a more general understanding of animal flight and swimming dynamics.

Plus, sheets of paper are easier to maintain in the laboratory than insects, he said.

Ristroph also made observations using a water tank and thin plates of plastic, whose “flight” through water (video above) are governed by the same physics that determines the motions of paper falling through the air. In both instances, the rate and control of the fall was affected by the location of the weight and the impact it had on the center of mass. There is a “sweet spot” for the center of mass that produces a stable glide path.

Based on the results, Ristroph and his team created a mathematical model that serves as the basis of a “flight simulator,” a computer program that reproduces the different flight motions. No such model had previously existed for predicting gliding flight.

“The simulator can produce the full range of motions accurately. It describes the forces acting on the plate and finds out how the flyers should move based on the forces used in the equation. I think for the scientific community, that will translate well into something useful for everyone involved,” he said.

The findings could also contribute to new design methods for drones. “There are a lot of people working on making very small-scale flying robots. There are even some designs that are passive flyers – not powered – that are modeled on flying plant seeds that twirl like helicopters when they fall.”

These passive drones can be used for projects like air quality monitoring.

“There is an initiative to make small flyers, and at very small scales, simpler is better,” Ristroph said. “When you think about paper airplanes, it doesn’t get much simpler than that. I’m not an engineer who can make a useful flying robot, but I hope our findings will inspire others who can.”

“Studying toys is serious fun. Whether it’s a paper airplane or a spinning top, there is something scientifically valuable in finding out how they work.”

Experiments with aerodynamics at home

Ristroph’s research includes a component dedicated to training STEM students in aspects of modern applied mathematics, emphasizing the connections among modeling, simulation and experimental observation.

And his experiments are simple enough that they can be conducted anywhere. “I like to think of the whole world as a laboratory. There are simple experiments in front of you. The things you see around you are fascinating if you look at them in the right way,” he said.

Want to replicate the experiment at home? The basic materials are a notepad or copy paper about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide that can be folded and tape or paper clips that can be used to add weight.

“Studying toys is serious fun,” Ristroph said. “Whether it’s a paper airplane or a spinning top, there is something scientifically valuable in finding out how they work.”  

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Paper airplanes show off new aerodynamic effects

Since we can make complicated modern airplanes fly, one might think we know all there is to know about the simplest flying machines. "But paper airplanes, while simple to make, involve surprisingly complex aerodynamics," says Leif Ristroph. (Credit: Jeremy Bezanger/Unsplash )

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license.

• aerodynamics

A series of experiments using paper airplanes has revealed new aerodynamic effects, researchers report.

The findings enhance our understanding of flight stability and could inspire new types of flying robots and small drones.

“The study started with simple curiosity about what makes a good paper airplane and specifically what is needed for smooth gliding,” says Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University’s Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and an author of the study in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics .

“…paper airplanes, while simple to make, involve surprisingly complex aerodynamics.”

“Answering such basic questions ended up being far from child’s play. We discovered that the aerodynamics of how paper airplanes keep level flight is really very different from the stability of conventional airplanes.”

“Birds glide and soar in an effortless way, and paper airplanes, when tuned properly, can also glide for long distances,” says author Jane Wang, a professor of engineering and physics at Cornell University. “Surprisingly, there has been no good mathematical model for predicting this seemingly simple but subtle gliding flight.”

Since we can make complicated modern airplanes fly, the researchers say, one might think we know all there is to know about the simplest flying machines.

“But paper airplanes, while simple to make, involve surprisingly complex aerodynamics,” Ristroph says.

‘Just right’ center of mass

To begin their study, researchers considered what is needed for a plane to glide smoothly. Since paper airplanes have no engine and rely on gravity and proper design for their movement, they are good candidates for exploring factors behind flight stability.

To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers conducted lab experiments by launching paper airplanes with differing centers of mass through the air. The results, along with those from studying plates falling in a water tank, allowed the team to devise a new aerodynamic model and also a “flight simulator” capable of predicting the motions.

To find the best design, the researchers placed different amounts of thin copper tape on the front part of the paper planes, giving them varied center of mass locations. Lead weights added to the plates in water served the same purpose.

“The key criterion of a successful glider is that the center of mass must be in the ‘just right’ place,” Ristroph explains. “Good paper airplanes achieve this with the front edge folded over several times or by an added paper clip, which requires a little trial and error.”

In the experiments, the researchers found that the flight motions depended sensitively on the center of mass location.

Specifically, if the weight was at the center of the wing or only displaced somewhat from the middle, it underwent wild motions, such as fluttering or tumbling. If the weight was displaced too far toward one edge, then the flier quickly dove downwards and crashed. In between, however, there was a “sweet spot” for the center of mass that gave stable gliding.

Aerodynamic ‘sweet spot’

The researchers coupled the experimental work with a mathematical model that served as the basis of a “flight simulator,” a computer program that successfully reproduced the different flight motions. It also helped explain why a paper airplane is stable in its glide.

When the center of mass is in the “sweet spot,” the aerodynamic force on the plane’s wing pushes the wing back down if the plane moves upward and back up if it moves downward.

“The location of the aerodynamic force or center of pressure varies with the angle of flight in such a way to ensure stability,” Ristroph explains.

He notes that this dynamic does not occur with conventional aircraft wings , which are airfoils—structures whose shapes work to generate lift.

“The effect we found in paper airplanes does not happen for the traditional airfoils used as aircraft wings, whose center of pressure stays fixed in place across the angles that occur in flight,” Ristroph says. “The shifting of the center of pressure thus seems to be a unique property of thin, flat wings, and this ends up being the secret to the stable flight of paper airplanes.”

“This is why airplanes need a separate tail wing as a stabilizer while a paper plane can get away with just a main wing that gives both lift and stability,” he says. “We hope that our findings will be useful in small-scale flight applications, where you may want a minimal design that does not require a lot of extra flight surfaces, sensors, and controllers.”

The National Science Foundation supported the work.

Source: NYU

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For new insights into aerodynamics, scientists turn to paper airplanes

Findings unveil mechanisms that explain flight stability.

A series of experiments using paper airplanes reveals new aerodynamic effects, a team of scientists has discovered. Its findings enhance our understanding of flight stability and could inspire new types of flying robots and small drones.

"The study started with simple curiosity about what makes a good paper airplane and specifically what is needed for smooth gliding," explains Leif Ristroph, an associate professor at New York University's Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and an author of the study, which appears in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics . "Answering such basic questions ended up being far from child's play. We discovered that the aerodynamics of how paper airplanes keep level flight is really very different from the stability of conventional airplanes."

"Birds glide and soar in an effortless way, and paper airplanes, when tuned properly, can also glide for long distances," adds author Jane Wang, a professor of engineering and physics at Cornell University. "Surprisingly, there has been no good mathematical model for predicting this seemingly simple but subtle gliding flight."

Since we can make complicated modern airplanes fly, the researchers say, one might think we know all there is to know about the simplest flying machines.

"But paper airplanes, while simple to make, involve surprisingly complex aerodynamics," notes Ristroph.

The paper's authors began their study by considering what is needed for a plane to glide smoothly. Since paper airplanes have no engine and rely on gravity and proper design for their movement, they are good candidates for exploring factors behind flight stability.

To investigate this phenomenon, the researchers conducted lab experiments by launching paper airplanes with differing centers of mass through the air. The results, along with those from studying plates falling in a water tank, allowed the team to devise a new aerodynamic model and also a "flight simulator" capable of predicting the motions.

To find the best design, the researchers placed different amounts of thin copper tape on the front part of the paper planes, giving them varied center of mass locations. Lead weights added to the plates in water served the same purpose.

"The key criterion of a successful glider is that the center of mass must be in the 'just right' place," Ristroph explains. "Good paper airplanes achieve this with the front edge folded over several times or by an added paper clip, which requires a little trial and error."

In the experiments, the researchers found that the flight motions depended sensitively on the center of mass location. Specifically, if the weight was at the center of the wing or only displaced somewhat from the middle, it underwent wild motions, such as fluttering or tumbling. If the weight was displaced too far toward one edge, then the flier quickly dove downwards and crashed. In between, however, there was a "sweet spot" for the center of mass that gave stable gliding.

The researchers coupled the experimental work with a mathematical model that served as the basis of a "flight simulator," a computer program that successfully reproduced the different flight motions. It also helped explain why a paper airplane is stable in its glide. When the center of mass is in the "sweet spot," the aerodynamic force on the plane's wing pushes the wing back down if the plane moves upward and back up if it moves downward.

"The location of the aerodynamic force or center of pressure varies with the angle of flight in such a way to ensure stability," explains Ristroph.

He notes that this dynamic does not occur with conventional aircraft wings, which are airfoils -- structures whose shapes work to generate lift.

"The effect we found in paper airplanes does not happen for the traditional airfoils used as aircraft wings, whose center of pressure stays fixed in place across the angles that occur in flight," Ristroph says. "The shifting of the center of pressure thus seems to be a unique property of thin, flat wings, and this ends up being the secret to the stable flight of paper airplanes."

"This is why airplanes need a separate tail wing as a stabilizer while a paper plane can get away with just a main wing that gives both lift and stability," he concludes. "We hope that our findings will be useful in small-scale flight applications, where you may want a minimal design that does not require a lot of extra flight surfaces, sensors, and controllers."

The paper's other authors were Huilin Li, a doctoral candidate at NYU Shanghai, and Tristan Goodwill, a doctoral candidate at the Courant Institute's Department of Mathematics.

The work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (DMS-1847955, DMS-1646339).

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Story Source:

Materials provided by New York University . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

• Huilin Li, Tristan Goodwill, Z. Jane Wang, Leif Ristroph. Centre of mass location, flight modes, stability and dynamic modelling of gliders . Journal of Fluid Mechanics , 2022; 937 DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2022.89

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The ultimate paper airplane.

Japan’s bid to launch an origami aircraft from the space station

Ichiko Fuyuno

Earlier this year, when astronauts attached the first section of Japan’s Kibo research laboratory to the orbiting International Space Station, most people probably didn’t notice the small symbol painted on the module’s side—an airplane made of Japan’s traditional folded-paper origami. Shinji Suzuki did notice. The University of Tokyo aerospace engineer hopes to watch real paper airplanes “launch” from the space station next year.

The idea started with Takuo Toda, president of the Origami Paper Airplane Association in Japan, who asked Suzuki a few years ago to study the possibility of a paper airplane re-entering the atmosphere from orbit. “At first, many aerospace engineers thought it would burn out,” says Suzuki. Objects returning from space begin their atmospheric re-entry at speeds of Mach 20. By the time the shuttle drops to an altitude of 37 miles, temperatures on parts of its surface reach as high as 2,900 degrees Fahrenheit. But a much lighter paper aircraft would slow to Mach 6 earlier in its descent—at altitudes of 62 miles or so, where the air is thinner. As a result, the aerodynamic heating wouldn’t be as severe.

Suzuki knew of a method developed by a small Japanese company to coat paper with a kind of glass that would increase its heat resistance while still allowing it to be folded easily. In February, he decided to test his creations. A three-inch-long origami airplane made of specially-coated paper and folded like a space shuttle was placed in a Mach 7 airflow inside the University of Tokyo’s hypersonic wind tunnel. It withstood aerodynamic heating up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 seconds—enough to give Suzuki the confidence to move forward.

Last year Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata expressed an interest in joining the project, after he’d learned that some materials made of paper—including a flight diary and notes taken by Israeli astronaut Ilan Ramon—had survived space shuttle Columbia ’s violent breakup on reentering the atmosphere in 2003. Suzuki now had a means to launch his aircraft from orbit. Wakata or one of his crewmates will release about 30 eight-inch-long origami airplanes during a spacewalk planned for his STS-127 shuttle mission early next year. The Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, recently announced its support for the research, one of four projects that will receive a combined total of 30 million yen ($285,700) a year for a maximum of three years. Success could pave the way for designing lightweight space reentry vehicles, says Suzuki.

Astronauts have flown paper airplanes inside spacecraft ( see the video link on this page ) , but have never dropped one overboard to see what happens. This won’t be the first high-altitude flight, however. “We have some true stories, and some we hope are true because they are so cool,” says Andy Chipling, author of Flying Paper Airplanes and president of the Paper Aircraft Association. He himself has “let one or two go while paragliding,” and once dropped a paper airplane from a hot air balloon 7,000 feet over Kenya. (“We started at 5,000 feet ground height, so it’s cheating, I think!”)

Then there was the time, recalls Chipling, that someone in the United States “let one go down a mountain. It was said that half an hour later, when he drove into the lower parking at the bottom of the mountain, the aircraft landed at about the same time. It sounds far-fetched, but it is not impossible, as thermals could have slowed its descent.”

For Suzuki, the biggest challenge was figuring out how to predict the landing point for a paper airplane dropped from orbit. Basically, he can’t. No one can determine with any precision where or when the origami airplanes will come down, except that they have a good chance of falling into the ocean. A bigger airplane would be more visible, but could pose a hazard to the space station or to people on the ground. Attaching an electronic transmitter would increase the airplane’s weight and make it more subject to aerodynamic pressure. Therefore, says Suzuki, “I decided to expect someone on earth to pick it up” rather than try to track its flight.

If all goes well, the paper airplanes will land on Earth a few months after they’re released. “I will write messages in several languages on the planes to ask the finder to let me know,” Suzuki says.

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Tony Reichhardt is a senior editor at Air & Space .

A Living History of The Humble Paper Airplane

For centuries, paper airplanes have unlocked the science of flight—now they could inspire drone technology.

Shinji Suzuki met Takuo Toda in 1999, atop Mt. Yonami in the southern city of Jinseki-Kogen, Japan. Toda, the chairman of the Japan Origami Airplane Association, was there to launch a large paper plane from a tower he had built on the mountaintop for just that purpose.

Toda’s lofty dream inspired Suzuki to take action, and in 2008, the pair announced a project to launch paper airplanes from the International Space Station (ISS). Critics suggested these planes would burn up on their descent back to Earth, Suzuki says. However, he predicted that with a protective coating and a controlled trajectory, they might actually be able to avoid burning up on reentry into Earth’s atmosphere. Another challenge? Figuring out where exactly the planes would land.

While Suzuki plotted the planes’ journey to the ISS, Toda would chart another path, racking up Guinness World Records for his paper airplane designs . For decades, he’s aimed to break the 30-second record for time aloft of a paper plane. He’s come close multiple times.

At a Japan Airlines hangar near Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in 2009, Toda sent a paper plane soaring for a whopping 26.1 seconds. And he holds the current time aloft record, which he set in 2010 with a rectangular design that lingered in the air for an astonishing 29.2 seconds. There are other records to be broken, too. As of April 2023, a trio of aerospace engineers currently hold the title for longest-distance throw of a paper airplane. Their dart-shaped plane traveled 289 feet and 9 inches, beating the previous record by almost 40 feet.

Our obsession with testing the boundaries of folded flight is relatively recent, but our desire to explore and explain the complex world of aerodynamics goes back much further.

Chinese engineers are thought to have invented what could be considered the earliest paper planes around 2,000 years ago. But these ancient gliders, usually crafted from bamboo and paper or linen, resembled kites more than the dart-shaped fliers that have earned numerous Guinness World Records in recent years.

Leonardo da Vinci would take a step closer to the modern paper airplane in the late 14th and early 15th centuries by building paper models of his aircraft designs to assess how they might sustain flight. But da Vinci’s knowledge of aerodynamics was fairly limited. He was more inspired by animal flight and, as a result, his design for craft like the ornithopter—a hang-glider-​size set of bat wings that used mechanical systems powered by human movement—never left the ground.

Paper airplanes helped early engineers and scientists learn about the mechanics of flight. The British engineer and aviator Sir George Cayley reportedly crafted the first folded paper plane to approach modern specifications in the early 1800s as part of his personal experimentation with aerodynamics. “He was one of the early people to link together the idea that the lift from the wings picking up the aircraft for stable flight must be greater than or equal to the weight of the aircraft,” says Jonathan Ridley , PhD, the head of engineering and a scholar of early aviation at Solent University in the U.K.

.css-2l0eat{font-family:UnitedSans,UnitedSans-roboto,UnitedSans-local,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.625rem;line-height:1.2;margin:0rem;padding:0.9rem 1rem 1rem;}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.75rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:1.875rem;line-height:1;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-2l0eat{font-size:2.25rem;line-height:1;}}.css-2l0eat b,.css-2l0eat strong{font-family:inherit;font-weight:bold;}.css-2l0eat em,.css-2l0eat i{font-style:italic;font-family:inherit;} “Over the last 20 years, there’s been an increasing interest in smaller-scale flight.”

More than a century later, before their famous 1903 flight in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the Wright Brothers built paper models of wings to better understand how their glider would sustain flight, explains Ridley. They then tested these models in a rudimentary, refrigerator-size wind tunnel—only the second to be built in the U.S.

Paper planes are still illuminating the hidden wonders of flight. Today, these lightweight aircraft serve as a source of inspiration not only for aviation enthusiasts but also for fluid dynamicists and engineers studying the complex effects of air on small aircraft like drones.

At Cornell University, in a lab run by physics professor Jane Wang , PhD, paper gliders plunge, swoop, and flutter through the air. What might look like child’s play to the untrained eye is actually part of a serious experiment conducted by Wang and her colleague Leif Ristroph , PhD, an associate professor of mathematics at New York University. Once the planes land, Wang and Ristroph analyze data from their flight and apply weights to change the balance of these gliders. They hope doing so will help them better understand how lightweight objects soar—something that could one day inform the future of miniature drones and other robotic craft.

The team’s most recent study, published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics in February 2022 , explored the mechanics of gliding and identified new ways for paper gliders to achieve stable flight. Insights gleaned from this research have practical applications, but they also shed light on the aerodynamic principles that keep paper airplanes thrown by enthusiasts up in the air. All planes —powered and unpowered —are controlled by the four forces of flight: lift, weight, thrust, and drag. Lift is the aerodynamic force produced by the forward motion of an object through a fluid—in this case, air. Weight, or the force of gravity, is the opposing force and pulls the airplane toward Earth. Where the engines or propellers on a passenger aircraft generate thrust, the force of a paper plane pilot’s throw gives the aircraft the forward momentum. Drag, caused by the friction a plane experiences as it moves through the air, acts in opposition to thrust.

Traditional airplanes have airfoil-shaped wings with a round leading edge. Air that passes over the wing conforms to its shape. Air flowing above the wing moves faster than air below the wing, forming a low-pressure zone above the wing that generates lift.

“The magic of a paper airplane is that all of these little flight corrections are happening continuously throughout its flight.”

But the wing of a paper glider is flat, and air does not flow smoothly around it. Instead, that air forms a small, low-pressure vortex immediately above the leading edge of the wing. “This little vortex ends up changing a lot of the aerodynamic characteristics of the plane,” Ristroph says. “One thing it does is give the plane a natural stability, meaning that, in principle, it can and will glide.”

As the angle at which a glider’s wing cuts through the air—known as the angle of attack—changes, so too does the size and location of the vortex above the wing. This affects where the center of pressure, or the precise location where lift is focused, lies along the wing and how responsive it is to disturbances. If, for example, the plane encounters a gust that pushes its nose down, the center of pressure will slide forward, pushing the nose back up and into a stable position.

“The magic of a paper airplane is that all of these little flight corrections are happening continuously throughout its flight,” Ristroph says. “The plane is hanging under a vortex that is constantly swelling and shrinking in just the right ways to keep a smooth and level glide.”

The center of pressure for an airfoil, however, is locked in place and does not change with the angle of attack. This means it has trouble self-correcting if destabilized. Ristroph says the team tested this in some of their experiments by folding the sheets into an airfoil. These sheets quickly crashed after brief, erratic flights because they could not stabilize after being perturbed.

This phenomenon changes at different scales, Ristroph adds. For instance, if you were to construct a paper plane the size of a Boeing 747 , the vortex above the wing would be much larger and behave differently. “That vortex would not just stay on the plane and sit there, it would jump off, reform again, and do something a little turbulent and a little crazy,” he says. “You might not be able to rely on that vortex to give you stability because it may not always be there.” Conversely, if you created a paper airplane less than, say, a millimeter long, the aerodynamics would change—along with the behavior of that vortex.

The central focus of Ristroph and Wang’s work—and, as their research suggests, the true secret to a stable glide—is identifying and making adjustments based on a glider’s center of balance. The center of balance lies at the point where a plane would be perfectly balanced if suspended in midair. (You can locate the center of balance on a paper airplane by balancing it between the tips of your thumb and forefinger.) For an unfolded sheet of paper like the ones Wang and Ristroph tested, the center of balance is directly in the middle of the page.

The team experimented with tweaking the center of balance by placing strips of copper tape on their paper gliders and studying their flight. If the weights were placed too close to the center of the sheet, the gliders would tumble uncontrollably to the ground. If the weights were placed too far forward, they would immediately nose-dive.

“People can make very, very good paper airplanes now,” Wang says. “It’s a fine art. They build their intuition by making them.”

Through trial and error, they discovered that placing these weights halfway between the middle of the sheet and the leading edge created a stable glide, meaning that even if the glider was disturbed during its flight, it would still be able to right itself. Wang says this discovery was particularly surprising because previous work done on this topic had only ever identified “neutrally stable” modes of flight, which become unstable if perturbed and cannot self-correct.

Ristroph hopes the findings from their work will help engineers design new types of small aircraft that take advantage of passive modes of flight like, say, windsurfing craft that sail high above cities to monitor air quality. “Over the last 20 years, there’s been increasing interest in smaller-scale flight,” Ristroph says. “Small-scale flying robots [could] do things like ride on the wind rather than having some kind of engine or spinning rotors like a helicopter.”

The push to develop low-cost and low-impact alternatives to traditional aircraft has grown in recent decades. For example, in 2017 the San Francisco–based research and development firm Otherlab announced it had won a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to work on a lightweight cardboard glider that could someday deliver blood, vaccines, or other critical cargo to remote locations inaccessible via other modes of transportation.

The gliders, constructed from flat-packed pieces of cardboard, would be released from an airplane and, with the help of an onboard computer, navigate to a preprogrammed set of coordinates. Otherlab and DARPA shelved the project, but the central idea—tapping into the realm of unpowered flight to solve difficult problems—lives on.

Future small aircraft may also veer away from mimicking airplanes altogether, Wang says. In addition to studying paper gliders, much of her research focuses on forms of passive flight and gliding we already find in nature, such as insects and seeds that twirl off tree limbs. Using these techniques to create small craft could create even more possibilities in years to come.

Even after locating a glider’s center of mass, Wang cautions that this discovery won’t necessarily make solving future problems facing paper craft experts or engineers any easier. She and colleagues are attempting to solve these problems mathematically. Applying these mathematical revelations to a working glider? Well, that’s another challenge entirely.

Paper airplane enthusiasts, she suggests, might have better luck crafting gliders using intuition and experimentation instead. “People can make very, very good paper airplanes now,” Wang says. “It’s a fine art. They build their intuition by making them.”

Suzuki, Toda, and their collaborators spent 18 months testing multiple designs. They coated each plane in a protective glasslike substance that would raise the heat resistance but still allow for crisp, complex folds. With this design, Suzuki hoped that they might be able to test applications for other small-scale reentry vehicles.

The team then tested a prototype glider in the University of Tokyo’s hypersonic wind tunnel, subjecting the plane to speeds as high as Mach 7 and temperatures of almost 450°F—conditions similar to those a paper plane might face when reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

With these tests under their belt, the team reached out to Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who agreed to fund the project. One of the agency’s astronauts, Koichi Wakata, even expressed interest in launching them from the orbiting outpost himself. Ultimately, due to budget cuts, Suzuki and Toda’s paper planes never made it to space.

As researchers explore the field of aerodynamics, and new technology continues to model this type of flight, there’s still a chance we could see paper gliders pushing boundaries in years to come.

Weird Ways to Generate Lift

Here’s how strangely shaped objects—from Frisbees to honeybees—generate lift to soar through the air.

→ The lift produced by a Frisbee as it flies through the air is similar to the lift generated by an airplane’s wings. The perfect throw helps the disc push air downward without generating too much drag. In return, air pushes the Frisbee back up, generating additional lift. In 2005, researchers at MIT calculated the ideal throw angle for a Frisbee—12 degrees—to achieve maximum distance. (While the disc may travel greater heights with a larger angle, drag will shorten the distance traveled.)

Helicopter Seeds

→ The maple tree’shelicopter-like seeds, called samara, are specifically designed to fall and spin long distances away from the large, shady canopies of their parent trees. Their long, sail-like wings help balance the weight of the asymmetrical seeds. As the seed spins, the wider end of the wing moves faster than the air closer to the seed, generating lift to keep it airborne. Veins along the wing’s edge create turbulence, forming a small vortex above the wing that reduces pressure and generates even more lift.

→ Birds rely on their airfoil-shaped wings to generate enough lift force to equal and surpass their weight. But different types of birds rely on different modes of flight to generate lift force. (Hummingbirds hover thanks to a vortex that forms above their flapping wings.) Birds generate thrust by flapping their wings in a figure-eight motion. On the downstroke, air hits the bottom of the wing and is deflected past the bird, propelling it forward. Increasing the depth of each wingstroke increases airspeed and lifts the bird.

→ Bees have two sets of wings that they use to generate lift. As a bee rotates its wings back and forth, a small vortex forms above the wings’ leading edge, creating the lift force needed to keep the bee aloft. These soft and malleable wings move incredibly quickly, too, up to 230 beats per second. Compared to other insects of their size, this wingbeat is unusually fast. A fruit fly, for instance, is one eightieth the size of a honeybee and flaps its wings only 200 beats per second.

Sarah is a science and technology journalist based in Boston interested in how innovation and research intersect with our daily lives. She has written for a number of national publications and covers innovation news at Inverse .

Jennifer Leman is a science journalist and senior features editor at Popular Mechanics, Runner's World, and Bicycling. A graduate of the Science Communication Program at UC Santa Cruz, her work has appeared in The Atlantic, Scientific American, Science News and Nature. Her favorite stories illuminate Earth's many wonders and hazards.

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Paper Airplanes Plans

A glider is a special kind of aircraft that has no engine. In flight, a glider has three forces acting on it as compared to the four forces that act on a powered aircraft. Both types of aircraft are subjected to the forces of lift, drag, and weight. The powered aircraft has an engine that generates thrust, while the glider has no thrust.

Types of Glider Aircraft

There are many different types of glider aircraft.  Paper airplanes  are the simplest aircraft to build and fly, and students can learn the basics of aircraft motion by flying paper airplanes. Building and flying balsa wood or Styrofoam gliders is an inexpensive way for students to have fun while learning the basics of aerodynamics.  Hang-gliders  are piloted aircraft that are launched by leaping off the side of a hill or by being towed aloft.  Piloted gliders  are launched by ground based catapults, or are towed aloft by a powered aircraft then cut free to glide for hours over many miles. The Wright Brothers perfected the design of the first airplane and gained piloting experience through a series of glider flights from 1900 to 1903. The Space Shuttle flies as a glider during reentry and landing; the rocket engines are used only during liftoff.

On the graphic at the top of this page, there are two paper airplane designs shown: Paper Airplane #1 (PA-1), in blue at the lower right, and Paper Airplane #2 (PA-2), in red at the upper left. Both of these aircraft are constructed by folding an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper. The plans for these aircraft are provided below.

To obtain your own copy of PA-1 click here  and save the Power Point file. Open Power Point and follow the directions written on the aircraft to obtain a two-sided copy of the plans from your printer. The plans will look like this:

Constructing an Aircraft

To construct the aircraft, fold on the solid lines in the prescribed numerical order (1,2,3..) always folding to the inside. Cover the number with the fold. The dashed lines on the plans indicate places to cut with a scissors. The PA-1 is designed to be highly maneuverable and employs both ailerons and a rudder. If both ailerons are turned upward, the aircraft will loop. If one is turned up and the other down, and the rudder is fixed straight, the aircraft will roll. If the rudder is turned, the aircraft will perform a banked turn.

To obtain your own copy of PA-2 click here  and save the Power Point file. Open Power Point and follow the directions written on the aircraft to obtain a two-sided copy of the plans from your printer. The plans will look like this:

To construct the aircraft, fold on the solid lines in the prescribed numerical order (1,2,3..) always folding to the inside. Cover the number with the fold. The PA-2 is designed to fly fast and far.

Students should build and fly both aircraft to learn how differences in design affect the flight performance of an aircraft. After experimenting with paper airplanes, the student is ready to move up to more challenging aircraft such as wooden or Styrofoam gliders.

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February 28, 2013

Soaring Science: Test Paper Planes with Different Drag

An aerodynamic activity from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies

Key concepts Aerodynamics Planes Forces Drag Physics

Introduction Have you ever wondered what makes a paper plane fly? Some paper planes clearly fly better than others. But why is this? One factor is the kind of design used to build the plane. In this activity you'll get to build a paper plane and change its basic design to see how this affects its flight. There's a lot of cool science in this activity, such as how forces act on a plane so it can fly. So get ready to start folding!

Background The forces that allow a paper plane to fly are the same ones that apply to real airplanes. A force is something that pushes or pulls on something else. When you throw a paper plane in the air, you are giving the plane a push to move forward. That push is a type of force called thrust. While the plane is flying forward, air moving over and under the wings is providing an upward lift force on the plane. At the same time, air pushing back against the plane is slowing it down, creating a drag force. The weight of the paper plane also affects its flight, as gravity pulls it down toward Earth. All of these forces (thrust, lift, drag and gravity) affect how well a given paper plane's voyage goes. In this activity you will increase how much drag a paper plane experiences and see if this changes how far the plane flies.

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Materials • Sheet of paper • Ruler • Scissors • Large open area in which to fly a paper plane, such as a long hallway, school gym or basketball court. If you're flying your paper plane outside, such as in a field, try to do it when there isn't any wind. • Something to make at least a one-foot-long line, such as a long string, another ruler, masking tape, rocks or sticks. • Paper clips (optional)

Preparation • Make a standard, "dart" design paper airplane (for instructions, go to the Amazing Paper Airplanes Web page ). • Fold your paper into the basic dart paper plane. Fold carefully and make your folds as sharp as possible, such as by running a thumbnail or a ruler along each fold to crease it. Do not bend up the tailing edge of the wings (step 6 of the online folding instructions). • Go to a large open area and, using string, a ruler, masking tape, rocks or sticks, make a line in front of you that's at least one foot long, going from left to right. This will be the starting line from which you'll fly the paper plane.

Procedure • Place your toe on the line you prepared and throw the paper plane. Did it fly very far? • Throw the plane at least four more times. Each time before you throw the plane, make sure it is still in good condition (that the folds and points are still sharp). When you toss it, place your toe on the line and try to launch the plane with a similar amount of force, including gripping it at the same spot. Did it go about the same distance each time? • Once you have a good idea of about how far your plane typically flies, change the plane’s shape to increase how much drag it experiences. To do this, cut slits that are about one inch long right where either wing meets the middle ridge. Fold up the cut section on both wings so that each now has a one-inch-wide section at the end of the wing that is folded up, at about a 90-degree angle from the rest of the wing. • Throw your modified paper plane at least five more times, just as you did before. How far does the paper plane fly now compared with before? Why do you think this is, and what does it have to do with drag? • Extra: Make paper planes that are different sizes and compare how well they fly. Do bigger planes fly farther? • Extra: Try making paper planes out of different types of paper, such as printer paper, construction paper and newspaper. Use the same design for each. Does one type of paper seem to work best for making paper planes? Does one type work the worst? • Extra: Some people like to add paper clips to their paper planes to make them fly better. Try adding a paper clip (or multiple paper clips) to different parts of your paper plane (such as the front, back, middle or wings) and then flying it. How does this affect the plane's flight? Does adding paper clips somewhere make its flight better or much worse? Observations and results Did the original plane fly the farthest? Did the plane with increased drag fly a much shorter distance?

As a paper plane moves through the air, the air pushes against the plane, slowing it down. This force is called drag. To think about drag, imagine you are in a moving car and you put your hand out the window. The force of the air pushing your hand back as you move forward is drag, also sometimes referred to as air resistance. In this activity you increased how much drag acted on the paper plane by making a one-inch-high vertical strip on both wings. For example, this is what happens when you're in a moving car with your hand out the window and you change its position from horizontal to vertical. When your hand is held out vertically, it catches a greater amount of air and experiences a greater drag than when it is horizontal. You could probably feel this, as your hand would be more forcefully pushed back as the car moves forward. This is what happened to the modified plane—it experienced a greater amount of drag, which pushed it back more than the original plane. This experiment has clearly demonstrated that altering how just one force acts on a paper plane can dramatically change how well it flies.

Cleanup Recycle the paper plane when you are done with it.

More to explore Dynamics of Flight: Forces of Flight , from NASA What Makes Paper Airplanes Fly? , from Scholastic Forces of Flight—Drag , from The Franklin Institute How Far Will It Fly? Build and Test Various Paper Planes , from Science Buddies

This activity brought to you in partnership with  Science Buddies

Paper Airplane Study Finds New Aerodynamic Effects

A team of researchers analyzing the flight characteristics of paper airplanes have found a whole new set of unexpected aerodynamic effects. Initially designed to understand the basic mechanics behind what makes a good paper airplane fly, the novel aerodynamic effects found by researchers may lead to the development of a whole new class of flying robots or small drones that function with very few moving parts.

WHAT MAKES A GOOD PAPER AIRPLANE FLY?

What is it that makes a good paper airplane glide across a lengthy high school cafeteria but dooms other similar-appearing craft to dive straight into the floor? It’s a question that has flummoxed more than one would-be paper airline launcher and one that motivated a team of researchers from New York University’s (NYU) Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences and Cornell University to search for an answer.

“The study started with simple curiosity about what makes a good paper airplane and specifically what is needed for smooth gliding,” explains NYU associate professor and study co-author Leif Ristroph in a press release announcing the research. “Answering such basic questions ended up being far from child’s play. We discovered that the aerodynamics of how paper airplanes keep level flight is really very different from the stability of conventional airplanes.”

CENTER OF MASS IS THE KEY

To begin their study, the research team evaluated the mathematics behind paper airplane flight. For instance, a paper airplane has no motor but instead relies on gravity for its gliding movement, much like a gliding bird.

“Birds glide and soar in an effortless way, and paper airplanes, when tuned properly, can also glide for long distances,” said study co-author Jane Wang, a professor of engineering and physics at Cornell University. “Surprisingly, there has been no good mathematical model for predicting this seemingly simple but subtle gliding flight.”

It soon became apparent that absent previous mathematical modeling, uncovering the secrets of paper airplane flight would require some real-world testing. First, the team used a basic triangle design for their paper airplane, which is considered the simplest and most efficient form. Next, the researchers placed thin pieces of copper tape on the front part of the paper airplanes, much like the paper clip used in many homemade models. The copper tape segments were placed in different locations on each plane, creating a differing center of mass.

“The key criterion of a successful glider is that the center of mass must be in the ‘just right’ place,” Ristroph explains. “Good paper airplanes achieve this with the front edge folded over several times or by an added paper clip, which requires a little trial and error.”

After numerous paper airplane launches in a laboratory setting, the team found the best weight location to maximize flight distances.

“If the weight was at the center of the wing or only displaced somewhat from the middle, it underwent wild motions, such as fluttering or tumbling,” the press release explains. “If the weight was displaced too far toward one edge, then the flier quickly dove downwards and crashed. In between, however, there was a “sweet spot” for the center of mass that gave stable gliding.”

The team mirrored these test flights by sinking a set of plates in a water tank and observing their “gliding” motion on the way to the bottom. Lead weights were placed at different locations on the plates to change their center of mass, much like the copper tape on the paper airplane.

The researchers combined all of this accumulated data to create customized “flight simulator” software that allowed them to analyze and simulate paper airplane flight. And to their surprise, they not only found out how to make a good airplane, but they also learned that the aerodynamic principles of a gliding paper airplane (or a sinking plate) were completely different from that of a conventional aircraft.

NASA Taps Boeing and Northrop Grumman to Develop Ultra-High-Speed Mach 4 Passenger Aircraft

“The effect we found in paper airplanes does not happen for the traditional airfoils used as aircraft wings, whose center of pressure stays fixed in place across the angles that occur in flight,” said Ristroph. “The shifting of the center of pressure thus seems to be a unique property of thin, flat wings, and this ends up being the secret to the stable flight of paper airplanes.”

“This is why airplanes need a separate tail wing as a stabilizer,” he added, “while a paper plane can get away with just a main wing that gives both lift and stability.”

PAPER AIRPLANE AERODYNAMICS MAY LEAD TO INNOVATIVE AIRCRAFT

Published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics , the study offers a unique insight into a child’s toy that nearly everyone has built. More importantly, it also found a whole new set of aerodynamic principles that the researchers believe could lead to the development of new types of hyper-efficient, specialized aircraft.

“We hope that our findings will be useful in small-scale flight applications,” concluded Ristroph, “where you may want a minimal design that does not require a lot of extra flight surfaces, sensors, and controllers.”

Unfortunately, the study did not indicate where you should write the “Do you like me? Mark Yes or No” message. SMH.

Follow and connect with author Christopher Plain on Twitter:   @plain_fiction

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Science Struck

Understanding Paper Airplane Aerodynamics Just Got Way Easier

Most of us have enjoyed making paper airplanes during childhood, but have you ever wondered what makes a folded piece of paper fly? Read on to know more.

Like it? Share it!

Aerodynamics is the branch of physics that studies the characteristics of motion of air and the interaction of any moving object with air. An airplane is an object that makes use of the principles of aerodynamics to fly tons of weight across thousand miles against the force of gravity. When we are implementing the art of origami while making simple paper airplanes, the basic aerodynamics used by it is very similar to the aerodynamics of a real plane. Every fold that we make while constructing a paper plane imparts some important logic in aerodynamic to it. Since the real airplane aerodynamics is a bit complicated, we opt for studying the paper airplanes which definitely explain the basics of flying.

A real airplane and a paper airplane almost share the same aerodynamics logic. However, the configuration differences that exist are due to the dissimilar purposes of the two types. Now, the main parts of a real airplane are the wings, the tail, and the fuselage (body) that holds the pilot and passengers. In a paper airplane, you will observe that the tail and wings are fused. It does not have a fuselage, since it does not have to bear any occupants. There are four types of forces in physics that play an important role in a making paper airplane soar in the air.

Very simply, lift is a force that acts perpendicular to the oncoming force, and holds the airplane in the air. It acts directly against the weight of the airplane. Though the entire plane exerts this force, the wings are the ones that generate it to the maximum level. Both the upper and lower surfaces of the wings are responsible for turning the flow of air. Generally, lift is the result of a solid object deflecting the motion of gas. This force acts through the center of pressure of the object.

Drag, also known as air resistance, is a force that opposes the motion of an object in fluid (gas or liquid). This force opposes the motion of the aircraft in air and is produced by the entire aircraft. It occurs due to the surface friction between the solid surface of the airplane and air molecules. This too acts through the center of pressure of the object.

It is the forward force that is applied to the airplane to propel it in the forward direction. It comes from the engines of a real aircraft, whereas for a paper airplane, the human hand artificially generates this force while hurtling the plane in air.

Gravity is another force that acts on the airplane and constantly tries to pull it down towards the Earth. A real aircraft makes use of many lift, drag, and thrust forces against the gravitational force. In case of a paper airplane, when we hurl it in the air with some energy, it makes use of that energy to stay in air for some time. As the energy goes on reducing, the plane moves downwards. As soon as all the energy is exhausted, the airplane falls down to the ground.

The humidity of air also has a considerable effect in the flight of a paper airplane. As paper absorbs moisture, it changes the density of the airplane consequently. So, making the airplane out of a thick paper proves to be more effective.

An actual plane has additional components that are utilized for efficient flying of the aircraft when it is carrying weight. For a real plane, the weight of the passengers and luggage affect the above elements to some extent. So, next time you make a paper airplane, keep in mind these points to make one that has a long-lasting flight.

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an analogy for every complexity

The science behind paper airplanes.

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14 Comments

Have you ever thrown a paper airplane? How did it fly? Paper airplanes vary widely in design, and those differences lead to meaningful differences in the way that they fly. Some airplanes fly quickly through the air, while others glide slowly. Sometimes, a paper airplane will tip its nose upward, leading to a stall. Why do these things happen?

The mechanics of paper airplanes are interesting because they are similar to those of most things that move quickly through the air. They have four basic forces acting on them:

via auntannie.com

The thrust comes from you when you throw the plane. Thus, the plane has no thrust in flight. The reason it doesn’t continue to slow down during flight is because it is also falling, “converting” its potential energy into thrust as it falls.

The lift comes from the difference in air pressure above and below the wing. This is caused by the shape of the wing, known as an airfoil. Lift is proportional to the size of the wing and the square of the speed of the plane.

So how do these forces affect how a plane flies? Take for example the standard paper “dart” plane:

via Wikigami

If you have flown this plane before, you know that it flies quickly, but drops to the ground relatively quickly. This can be explained as the plane having little drag, but little lift as well. More specifically, the lift and gravity forces are not perfectly aligned like they are in the first image. Rather, the center of gravity is slightly ahead of the center of lift in this plane, causing it to tip downwards and fly towards the ground.

Another popular plane is this “glider”:

via Instructables

This plane has a slow and steady flight if thrown gently or even dropped from a high place. Even without thrust from the person who throws it, it is able to maintain steady flight, if at the cost of a slight drop at the beginning. This indicates that its gravity and lift forces are aligned correctly. While it does not fly as fast, it has a larger wing surface area, which allows it to get enough lift at lower speeds.

With these ideas in mind, it’s easy to pick the correct airplane for any task. (That’s a common issue people have… right?) I once participated in a paper airplane competition based on longest total flight time. Knowing this, I instantly started folding large-winged gliders. When my plane nosedived too often, I folded it to place less paper in the front half, which moved the center of mass further back to compensate for the nosediving, which led to a steady-flying glider.

I went on to win $20 in that small competition. While, in real life, paper airplanes competitions are few and far between, this knowledge is not useful exclusively in these rare situations. Just to understand the basic mechanics at work in the planes, drones, and squirrel suits of the world is enlightening.

I have made lots of paper airplanes and lots of them failed this is a very detailed way to look at something so simple.

I agre I lyke paper airplanes because they are cool and soemtime I get them to fly. My bike is red and has stuff on the grip bars. What is yoru bike like.

are you in special ed classes?

Why was the necessary? If it was because of a few spelling errors by the previous poster than you don’t have much to talk about as your post had no capital letter at the beginning of your sentence.

Meow fuck out the way.

Come on people show some respect

Thank you for this post Gemlik Zeytin Fidanı

say my name

Heisenberg!

Am using this as research for my Engineering project. Very helpful, thanks!

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Where’s my cupcake?

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Paper Airplanes

Learn about the science of flight and then experiment with your own paper airplane models.

Four forces act on an airplane: weight, lift, thrust and drag.

Try these paper airplanes and share creations with #AFRLPaperAirplane on social media.

Right click an image below and select “Save image as” to download and print.

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In Flight With Paper Airplanes

An exploration with elementary engineering

Science and Children—February 2020 (Volume 57, Issue 6)

By Laura Katchmark, Elisabeth McCabe, Kristen Matthews, and Michele Koomen

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What better way to engage fifth-grade students in science and engineering practices than to use paper airplanes to encourage them to question, explore, create, and test designs! This multi-day unit draws from a fourth-grade curriculum (Pearson 2012) aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards ( NGSS Lead States 2013 ) used in teacher education methods classes and taught to grade 5 students. In this article, we share an integrated unit that includes reading selections about Amelia Earhart and the forces involved in paper airplane flight, an overview of how we used paper airplanes in an experimental design process, and how we helped students develop conclusions based on the claims, evidence, and reasoning framework (CER; McNeill and Krajcik 2012 ).

Introduction

Our 45-minute introduction lesson is designed to acquaint students with the principles of engineering, gravity, and the design process. We started by asking students what they know about paper airplanes and flight, using a Know, Wonder, Learn (KWL) chart. Some student notes revealed they knew that airplanes were made from a sheet of paper, needed wings to fly, needed someone to throw them, and can travel far. They wondered about gravity, how to prevent a paper airplane from making loops, and airplane size and weight.

Next, we asked students to think about the work of an engineer (e.g., What does an engineer do?). We discussed how an engineer might design, develop, and test new products. Any product, like smartphones, computers, washing machines, and even classroom furniture, had to be engineered and tested. To understand how much of our world is “engineered” and to incorporate movement, we took a “silent” engineering walk through the school to look for engineered items. Students recorded examples they observed on a sticky note that later we transferred to a class list ( Figure 1 ). Once we regathered everyone, we focused our discussion on how each example was part of an engineering process of trial, test, and redesign.

Next, we told students that we would explore the design process of engineering by making paper airplanes. We used a shared reading to develop concepts about the forces that would be involved in the flight of a paper airplane (see Supplemental Resources). Before we started the reading, we had students work with a partner on a word sort, a vocabulary strategy that allow students to develop relationships among words and reasoning skills of classification and deduction ( Zygouris-Coe 2015 ). Partners sorted the words into groups related to parts of the airplane ( Figure 2 ). As the shared reading proceeded, we stopped to discuss some of the key concepts (lift, drag, gravity, and thrust) and uncover the meaning of words unfamiliar to students. We emphasized how paper airplanes fly down as a result of gravity.

Conducting the Mini-Investigation

Students really looked forward to the day that we would begin the actual scientific and engineering study ( Pauley, Weege, and Koomen et al. 2016 )! We started this 45-minute lesson with an overview of the main goals of the unit: to make and test a control paper airplane, to make another paper airplane with one change (a testable variable), and see how that flight compared to the control. In this lesson, we introduced the students to the mini-investigation sheet that they would eventually complete (see Supplemental Resources).

We modeled how to make a basic dart airplane and talked about safety and handling of the paper airplanes. We outlined behavioral expectations and classroom management techniques, including how to throw the airplanes safely in the air and not at each other, the importance of throwing paper airplanes one at a time, and using safety googles during the flight. In our class, students worked together in small groups (of three or four students) where each group made one paper airplane; however, individual students could each make one and then as a group choose the one that they thought might perform better. We spent some time talking with students about how this first paper airplane would be their control and how they would measure the distance travelled over three trials. A control is important in science and engineering investigations because it offers the investigator the opportunity to compare across variables. We found it was very important to give students time to “pilot” throwing their airplane in a consistent manner. By doing this, we were able to have the students actually model what worked and what didn’t versus us just telling them. For example, some student groups figured out and then demonstrated to the class how to get the most accurate measurement by laying metersticks end to end or throwing the plane with the arm and plane at a right angle to the floor. We instructed the students on how to make a data table on the back sheet of the mini-investigation ( Figure 3 ) and to collect both qualitative data (observations of flight behavior) and quantitative data (measurement of distance travelled) that we used as formative assessment. We concluded this part of the unit by having students jot down a few notes again on that first page of the mini-investigation sheet about how they might modify and improve their plane’s design to increase the distance travelled.

The Design Process

We began the design process lesson (45-minutes) by having the fifth-grade students refer to their mini-investigation sheets to talk together in their groups about some of the modifications and improvements that they might make to increase the distance traveled of the paper airplane. Adding rudders; using different lengths, sizes, or weight of paper (office paper, cardstock, cardboard, or wax paper); or adding weight using paper clips or clay are some of the variable design modifications students have tested. After the students talked for a bit in their groups, we found it helpful to pull the students together as a whole group to share some of the ideas that were emerging about a possible design change using prompts such as: What worked well with the first model? What didn’t? What changes can be made to yield different results or Why do you think a particular change will produce those results?

After the group discussion, the students continued working on their mini-investigation sheets within their small groups to craft a research question, form hypotheses, and lay out their plan. Students used the question frame ( How does _____ affect ____?) to develop their research question. For example, Molly’s group question was “How does material affect distance?” We taught the students to identify multiple hypotheses or the possible outcomes of their investigation ( Pauley, Weege, and Koomen 2016 ). We talked about how important it is to identify a null hypothesis or the possibility that there will be no effect between the variables. In Molly’s group, there are three possible outcomes:

H 1 : The control will travel the farthest.

H 2 : The cardboard plane will travel the farthest.

H O : The material will not affect distance.

Once the groups decided on their one design modification to test, they completed the mini-investigation sheet, with an eye to being consistent with the first set of trials with the control (i.e., same position for the launch and same person). We wrapped up this part of the unit by asking each group to share the variable they decided to test, which also served as a formative assessment.

Design Modifications and Testing

The next sequence of this unit allowed students time to construct their group’s modified airplane within a 45-minute lesson. We found it helpful for students to first review their mini investigation sheet and to keep in mind that they were testing the independent variable (the design modification that they will be comparing to the control). Next, each group constructed the new plane with its variable modification. The students tested their new design by running three trials as they did earlier in the unit, collecting both qualitative and quantitative data. We found that students need ample time to work and inquire to ensure accurate and comparable results. At the end of this part of the unit, student groups should have completed all three trials.

Working with paper airplanes sounds unthreatening; however, there are some things to take into account when teaching this unit.

Students should wear safety goggles when they are testing the airplanes in flight.

Use adequate spaces to encourage safety for all students (i.e., hallways, extra rooms, classroom).

Outline expectations for throwing airplanes (i.e., one person in the group throws one plane at a time down the runway; paper airplanes are not thrown at or over people).

Analysis and Conclusion

The final leg of this unit is where the students compare the experimental data against the control data, focusing on the analyze/interpret and conclude/report sections of the mini investigation sheet. To do this, students need to review the data tables from each of the two tests. As they review their data, we guide them with questions such as: “What do you notice about your two sets of data? How are they similar? How are they different? What patterns do you see?” (see Supplemental Resources). Students write down the answers to these questions in the analyze and interpret section of their planning sheet. For example, Jorge and his group noticed a pattern in distance traveled when using different-size paper for their planes: “The size of the paper can affect the distance it travels.”

Next, the students identify the claim that was supported by their evidence and circle it on their mini-investigations sheet. To communicate their conclusion, we use the claims, evidence, and reasoning (CER) sentence frames modified by Julie Jackson and colleagues (2016) based on the research of McNeill and Krajcik (2012) .

I claim ________ (claim: what the student knows/answers to a question or solution to a problem) because ___________ (evidence or data that support one of your hypotheses). I know I am right because ______ (reasoning: scientific concept, rule, or principle) ( Jackson, et al. 2016 , p. 65).

CER can be a little complicated for fifth graders, so we model how to use the frames. For example, Ellery and her fifth-grade group, wrote “I claim that my re-designed paper airplane is faster than my control because after three trials it went farther than my control by an average of 37 cm (supporting hypothesis 2). I know I am right because my re-designed paper airplane weighed less than my control which had less of a pull of gravity” (see NSTA Connection ).

Ellery tied the outcome of her group’s investigation to one of the key disciplinary core ideas of the unit: gravity. These written conclusions became part of our summative assessment using our rubric (see Supplemental Resources). To conclude, we returned to the KWL chart and asked students to reflect on what they had learned through the activities about paper airplanes and what makes them fly. The various colors of the sticky notes represent each stage of the KWL process.

Amelia Earhart

Engineering is a field with one of the worst gender gaps in all of the sciences ( Kanny, Sax, and Riggers-Piehl 2014 ). This unit creates an opportunity to address this disparity by highlighting the work of the pioneer aviator and champion of women’s rights: Amelia Earhart. Amelia Earhart was an American aviator who was the first woman to solo fly a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. She broke many records for airplane travel during her lifetime. Amelia disappeared in the South Pacific Ocean in July 1937 while trying to fly her plane named Electra around the world with her navigator Fred Noonan. She was declared dead on January 5, 1939.

We include a supplemental reading about Amelia Earhart that provides an overview of her accomplishments. To foster vocabulary development, we recommend using a word sort or the Five Most Important Words strategy ( Zygouris-Coe 2015 ). This strategy promotes deep understanding of words within a text and their context. First, students write down five words in a graphic organizer. Next, they use their own words to define the five selected words. Finally, they explain why the word is important in the reading selection. This strategy invites a student to explain what the words mean and why they are important for his or her understanding.

Reflections on Unit Taught

Drag and Gravity. As a paper airplane moves through the air, it pushes against the air, creating resistance or drag . If you want a paper airplane to fly far, you need to design a paper airplane with as little drag as possible. When we throw paper airplanes, they do not keep flying continuously. Instead, they fall down to the ground because of the force of gravity. Gravity is an invisible force that pulls objects to the center of our planet Earth. Objects with greater mass (like Earth) pull more than objects with less mass (paper airplanes). Keeping the paper airplane’s weight to a minimum will help fight against the pull of gravity.

Thrust and Lift. In this unit, student pilots use their muscles to thrust (forward movement) the paper airplane forward. Lift occurs as a result of the air below the paper airplane wing pushing up more than the air above the wing of the airplane is pushing down. The difference in pressure is actually what makes the paper airplane fly. The forces of thrust and lift help the paper airplane make a longer flight.

When the four forces are balanced they achieve a longer flight. Planes like the basic dart are designed to be thrown with a lot of force so they overcome gravity since they do not usually have a lot of drag or lift.

Versatility and adaptability are strengths of this unit. For example, when Laura was teaching this unit, she had only 25-minute segments to fit in a unit that was designed to span five 45-minute lessons. To maximize class time, she pre-folded the paper airplanes and measured the area of the room set aside for conducting the data collection. Additionally, we found it valuable to have students communicate their findings and conclusions with other groups at the end of the unit. We did this using the jigsaw approach, where students come together in groups, with each group member representing a different primary investigative group. In this way, students are informally modeling sharing of results using their mini-investigation sheets, similar to what scientists do when they share their findings at a conference. For example, Ellery (above) talked about what she learned by redesigning her paper airplane and the role of weight on gravity.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are grateful for the review of the physics content of the manuscript by Professor Chuck Niederriter at Gustavus Adolphus College. This work was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation (DR K-12-1417777). Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or endorsement of the funding agency.

INTERNET RESOURCES

Basic dart  http://www.foldnfly.com/1.html#Basic-Dart

What is gravity?  https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/what-is-gravity/en/

SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIALS

Amelia Earhart background info

Further reading about Amelia Earhart

Further reading about paper airplanes

Five Most Important Words

Science and Engineering Practice

Planning and Carrying Out Investigations

Classroom Connection:   Students design and construct an investigation that tests a modified design feature using paper airplanes.

Analyzing and Interpreting Data

Classroom Connection:   Students analyze and interpret data from two different test trials of the paper airplane.

Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions

Classroom Connection:   Students explain in writing their conclusion using the CER sentence frames.

Disciplinary Core Idea

PS2.B: Types of Interactions The gravitational force of Earth acting on an object near Earth’s surface pulls that object toward the planet’s center.

Classroom Connection: Students use evidence from their paper airplane investigation to support their argument that the gravitational force exerted by the Earth on objects is down.

Crosscutting Concept

Classroom Connection: Students identify patterns in their data to support their claims and explanations regarding the best design solution.

Performance Expectation

• The materials, lessons, and activities outlined in the article are just one step toward reaching the performance expectation listed below.

5-PS2-1 . Support an argument that the gravitational force exerted by Earth on objects is directed down.

Jackson J., Durham A., Dowell S., Sockel J., and Boynton I.. 2016. Claims and evidence. Science and Children 54 (4): 64–69.

Kanny M.A., Sax L.J., and Riggers-Piehl T.A.. 2014. Investigating forty years of STEM research: How explanations for the gender gap have evolved over time. Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering 20 (2): 127–148.

McNeill K.L., and Krajcik J.. 2012. Supporting grade 5–8 students in constructing explanations in science: The claim, evidence and reasoning framework for talk and writing . Boston, MA: Pearson.

NGSS Lead States. 2013. Next generation science standards: For states, by states . Washington, DC: National Academies Press

Pauley L., Weege K., and Koomen M. 2016. Native Plants and Seeds, Oh My! Science and Children 53 (9): 32–38.

Zygouris-Coe V.I. 2015. Teaching discipline-specific literacies in grades 6–12: Preparing students for college, career, and workforce demands . New York: Routledge.

Aerospace NGSS Three-Dimensional Learning Elementary

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