LL-L "Games" 2009.12.29 (01) [EN]

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L O W L A N D S - L - 29 December 2009 - Volume 02
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk>
Subject: LL-L "Games" 2009.12.28 (04) [EN]

> From: Tom Mc Rae <thomas.mcrae at bigpond.com>
> Subject: LL-L Childrens' Games
>
> > Paper airplanes in space!
> > -------
> > To see this story with its related links on the guardian.co.uk site,
> > go
> > to
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/dec/27/paper-plane-flight-record-japan
> > Paper plane enthusiast sets flight record
> > Takuo Toda targets 30-second barrier after hand-folded paper-only
> > plane stays in air for 26.1 seconds in Japan
>
>
> This is a VERY ambitious claim ! Let me assure you that Scottish
> schoolboys were making origami type paper aircraft from at least the
> 1930's.
> While we never timed them, few wrist watches in the 1940's I am
> certain that some of our Masters creations had excellent flight
> durations in excess
> of this claimed world record. If caught in a small thermal those craft
> just kept rising.

Tom,

I made these planes too, but I wouldn't call them proper origami planes
as the two sheets of paper were different sizes and you did need to tear
the nose down the middle to ensure that the tail stayed in.

I doubt if the use of thermals is allowed in the world record! Thirty
seconds is a very long time indeed for a paper aeroplane to stay
airborne.

I've made various other styles of plane, and the one that stays up
longest is one designed with the paper rolled and flattened to make the
leading edge of the wing much thicker than the rest of the wing. This is
nearer to origami but tends to need a paper clip or something to weight
it. It does, however, fly very flat and shallow, so it can go long
distances before reaching the ground, and any unsatisfactory aspects to
the flying can be ironed out by curving the rear of the wings to make it
fly straighter if it's veering to the side, and also make it fly
shallower so that it goes further.

That sort of plane is what I'd think of as suitable for a world record:
you don't really throw it, you just set it moving gently and leave it to
do its own flying. The Scottish, and judging from the chap's throwing
technique in the photo in the article, also the Japanese planes are
rather crude and the time aloft would seem to depend on the thrower's
strength as much as the design of the plane.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

•

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