You could also just do what I did and just fold only the top over itself, and use a bit of the back wing for the winglets, folded out. Tiny, tiny grip, enough to hold, deeper in the back than the front for stability, tiny y in the wings and winglets going out slightly. The wings need to make a y when you drop it in the air (you can simulate this while holding this so you don't mess up your shot at a perfect first flight!). Make sure to fold the front extraordinarily tightly. Otherwise it starts to tank.
Then it's a matter of how hard you launch it. As a child, I was getting shockingly long flight times, and on those special days where there was a breeze...oh boy. What a world.
Super stable, super easy to make, super easy to teach, the hardest part is the arm, the patience to keep trying, the luck that it doesn't catch in a tree, and the patience to adjust the winglets for a nice little spiral.
A lovely part of my engineering days as a child, definitely helped get the creative juices going for this field! I had a white trash bag at one point with all of these novel little designs I came up with just for funsies. :)))) :D :)))) <3
Oh my gosh, no way. You have no idea how much you just made this stranger's day. Thanks so much, dear! <3 :)))) :D :) :) <3
If you have trouble with flight time, you might enjoy having some flaps on the back too. Just ever so slight, almost little bumps that you'd push up subtly with your thumb in the back. If you do it perfectly, it just sails, almost sitting on the air itself. Too strong and it does little swoopy up and downs, too little and it goes straight down.
I'd ask you to send pics of your creation but I guess this is the Hacker News comments section! Super proud of you either way, dear! <3 :)))) :D :)
Well, I just went outside and had a ton of fun for 30 minutes or so with a paper airplane outside of my neighborhood's tennis courts. I forgot how hard elevator tuning was, as well as the apparent unfavorability of the wind sometimes (and how hard it hurts to really chuck something). Super sweaty and happy now, thank you for encouraging _me_ in turn to go out and build a paper airplane for the first time in years. Total blast! Thanks again! <3 :)))) :D :)
This design scheme was consistently among the best (not on the website above directly): http://www.10paperairplanes.com/how-to-make-paper-airplanes/...
You could also just do what I did and just fold only the top over itself, and use a bit of the back wing for the winglets, folded out. Tiny, tiny grip, enough to hold, deeper in the back than the front for stability, tiny y in the wings and winglets going out slightly. The wings need to make a y when you drop it in the air (you can simulate this while holding this so you don't mess up your shot at a perfect first flight!). Make sure to fold the front extraordinarily tightly. Otherwise it starts to tank.
Then it's a matter of how hard you launch it. As a child, I was getting shockingly long flight times, and on those special days where there was a breeze...oh boy. What a world.
Super stable, super easy to make, super easy to teach, the hardest part is the arm, the patience to keep trying, the luck that it doesn't catch in a tree, and the patience to adjust the winglets for a nice little spiral.
A lovely part of my engineering days as a child, definitely helped get the creative juices going for this field! I had a white trash bag at one point with all of these novel little designs I came up with just for funsies. :)))) :D :)))) <3