Awesome Paper Airplanes

This lightweight, carbon-fiber airframe converts paper, foam, balsa, or cardboard planes into motor-driven aircraft. A smartphone app controls flight via Bluetooth and makes flying easy. This bundle includes the POWERUP paper airplane book, which includes templates for a number of cool airplane designs.

If you want your paper airplanes to stay airborne for a long time, you could add motors to it, or you could watch this clip from Wired and paper airplane expert John Collins and learn a thing or two about the four main aerodynamic forces that that influence your folded paper’s flight.

Most paper airplanes have straight-edged wings that stick out from their center. But this peculiar paper flyer looks more like the core of a toilet paper roll than something that can get airborne. WIRED and paper airplane expert John Collins show us how to make one of these surprisingly aerodynamic paper planes.

In this brief clip from ViralVideoLab, they show off a simple way to make a paper airplane remain airborne for a very long time. The trick requires just the right kind of plane, and a series of small fans to keep it circling in the air. You can find folding instructions for the plane here.