Aeroplanes
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I have been designing my own paper aeroplanes for about 4 years now, and have come up
with quite a few decent designed. So now I have decided to go public and show them
to the world. I learnt origami when I was very young through a Japanese friend, so
some of my planes show it, and can be a bit tricky to build. Most people, when asked to
make a paper aeroplane, fall into one of two catagories. The majority make a crappy
dart by folding a paper millions of times to make it slimmer and crapper. I totally
reject that approach, as all they do (if that usually) is go along for a bit, then
fall to earth in a most unsatisfiying (ie fast) manner. The other group of people
have moved on a step from that, and make the 'standard glider' (the one where you have
to tear the corner out at one stage). This shows willing, but still a lack in initiative.
This particular glider is alright, but has a number of limitations - and the way most
people fold it, it still has hardly any lift so it doesn't really glide. However, the
very small minority of people actually make a decent glider; which one depends on the
circumstances - open air flight, enclosed space, sports hall - and what you want from it
- to hit some one, to stay in the air a long time, to loop. I would urge you to join me
in that elite minority, and as a start I will show you what I've done over the past
few years. Rule No. 1 - always keep a record of how to make your planes that you design!
I try and used fairly standard origami conventions - get a book to explain them, and
to explain more about how to fold well, acurately, etc. Also the complicated folds can
be very useful to design planes.
Here is a list of some conventions used in this section:
- Evenly dotted line
- Fold along this line. This represents a valley fold - the paper should make
a valley; the fold being lower than the surrounding paper
- Unevenly dotted line
- A mountain fold - ie the fold is higher than the surrounding paper
- Double headed arrow
- Fold, then fold back again so the paper is flat, but now with a crease in it
- Single headed arrow
- Fold and leave
- Pairs of marked lines
- These pairs of line marked with one or two dashes indicate that for the
appropriate fold these two lines are supposed to meet exactly when the
fold is made
Here are a few of the paper aeroplanes that I have designed over the years.
- Plane No. 1 - 'Old Faithfull'
- This plane is my favourite. It needs and rewards good throwing, and is adaptable
to different conditions. It can glide over long distances, it can stay in the air
for over 10 seconds easily and can also be flown very fast with little lift. Not
bad really.
- Plane No. 2 - 'Lecture Dart'
- This plane is one of my latest. If is easy to throw and is best thrown hard.
It is about as close as I get to a dart, but can easily out-perform almost
any dart you care to mention. Designed for those boring lectures that need
lightening up.
- Plane No. 3 - 'Bucket Plane'
- Another early design which very boringly flies straight, and up a bit if
you throw it hard enough. This plane is another plane where you can alter
the amount of lift at 'run-time' (rather than 'compile-time'; can't really
tell I'm a compsci can you!) so can be usefull in many situation (when you
want to make a paper aeroplane, for example).
- Plane No. 4 - 'Japenese Flyer'
- A very good looking plane, which is a bit tricky to fold. Flies well - more
like a dart than a true glider (after all, there is only one true glider - Old
Faithfull), but has the wing area to glide well is desired.
- Planes No. 5 - 'F15'
- Very rarely this will fly correctly, and when it does it is a joy to behold, and
can easily outdistance most aircraft. However, most of the time it just looks
great and spirals into the floor. A 'must try it' aeroplane. It is works,
then mail me!
- Plane No. 6 - 'The Slow Plane'
- Ideal for those lingering flights from the back of the lecture theatre
right to the front, to the pleasure of all viewers, apart from the lecturer.
A very simple looking plane that flies very well, and simple to make.
More will appear later, when I've either found them or invented some more.
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