the world's largest paper airplane takes flight

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Mar 28, 2012

first image
'the great paper airplane project' by the PIMA air and space museum has launched the world's largest paper airplane into the skies

hosted by the PIMA air and space museum in tucson, arizona (USA), the 'great paper airplane project' has launched
the world's largest paper airplane into the skies about the desert. measuring 45 feet (13.7m) long with a wingspan
of 24 feet (7.3m), the 'desert eagle' plane is composed of falcon board, a kind of corrugated cardboard and weighs
800 pounds (362.9kg). its design is based on the winning normal-sized paper airplane, created by 12-year-old arturo
valdenegro, entered in the museum's fly-off competition; and adapted by art thompson, one of the designers of the B-2
stealth bomber.

for the launch, the 'desert eagle' was towed into the air by a helicopter to a height of 2700 feet and released. the plane flew
for about ten seconds, reaching speeds of up to 100mph (161 km/hr), before crash landing as a result of stress on its tail.

watch the complete flight of the 'desert eagle' supersized paper airplane

view of the 'desert eagle' in flight

preparing the airplane on launch day

the craft was first hoisted into the air by a helicopter before being cut loose to glide on its own; here, the helicopter is arriving for pick-up

ground view during a test flight of a 15 foot prototype

via popsci

jenny db

03.28.12

airplanes (17 articles)

you have this paper airplane in one topic and in the topic that is right next to it you have forests and how we should save them. Weak.

my name says:

Mar 28, 2012

Reply
my name, you spent energy from your body and the computer and made us all read your comment. Weaker.

faf says:

Mar 28, 2012

Reply
should be called the giant 800 lb paper drop.
fly? not really, kind of dopped on an angle into the grouynd. e for effort though.

lastcardjb says:

Mar 29, 2012

Reply
What a waste of paper, gasoline and time. So what´s next? A commercial airliner to compete with the A380? No? Oh ok…

What? says:

Mar 31, 2012

Reply
What’s with all the negative comments?
Haven’t you ever wondered:
“I wonder how big you can make a paper airplane?”

Wondering says:

Mar 31, 2012

Reply
Sometimes I wonder if we really should pay attention to every thing we wonder about.

S. McD. says:

Mar 31, 2012

Reply
well, i guess this is can be seen as a massive demonstration on the problem of scale. the structural qualities and the specific behaviour are not the same as with a small paper folded plane. ignoring this fact leads to results like the one we can see in the video. i am sure that with another construction the flying performance could have been stronger.
another problem is the launch. a paper plane is accelerated to s certain speed and released in certain angle. dropping it might also lead to a weaker flight performance.

clct says:

Mar 31, 2012

Reply
FAIL!

??? says:

Apr 02, 2012

Reply

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