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Top 10 Tips For Making Good Paper Airplanes
There are lots of tips out there and many of them are good or at least decent. It will take you hours to find and try them all though. Instead of losing your time doing this, why don't you focus on the ones that produce the best results? Here I have collected the top of the top - the 10 tips for building paper airplanes that really work. Use them right now to make your advanced paper airplane:
1. Make sure there is enough weight in the nose.
Heavier nose is usually achieved with some extra folds and improves the flight of the paper model. If your airplane flies unstably, goes up and down, flies too short or rotates, it's quite possible the there is not enough weight in the front side. Of course too heavy nose isn't good option too - it can make your airplane point down too soon.
2. Bend the back of the elevator up.
This small adjustment can make your airplane fly longer and slower. It's a good way to balance an unbalanced paper aircraft.
3. Long wing span, small wing area.
Yet another rule for long and smooth flight. It's not very intuitive - the most inexperienced model makers will try to make large wings. The key however is in the wing span - the wing area better be small, like in gliders.
4. Add more creases to the wings.
This will make the wings and the flight more stable. Soft wings are sure receipt for failure.
5. Bend the edges of the wings upwards.
This is best to do if your airplane has too heavy nose. It balances the weight backwards.
6. Use and adjust the dihedral.
The dihedral is the angle between the wings and the fuselage. The two wings should never be exactly horizontal. They should form an obtuse angle, like V-shape. You can play with this angle, but in general when you look frontal at your airplane the fuselage and the wing should look like shown here.
7. Keep it symmetrical
Uneven airplane will rotate around its corpse, fly unstable and eventually drop on the ground too fast. Symmetry with paper airplanes is really important - use ruler if needed but make sure you keep it.
8. Use tape or staple to hold it together
Paper airplanes quickly lose their shape and even fall apart. Don't be a purist, use some tape to hold together the perfect shape that ensures the best flight.
9. Throw the plane at 45 degrees
Most airplanes fly best when thrown at 45 degrees from the ground. Not too straight up, not too horizontal.
10. Make single-sheet airplane
Some complex designs use 2 or more sheets of paper, glued together or attached with scotch tape. They look great but rarely fly good. Better stick to the straight simple shapes - if you want a flying paper airplane of course.
Sources and more tips:
