Interesting paper that flies | Day 1/100

Until this evening I had never made a paper aeroplane. Sounds like such a simple thing I know, but for Day 1 of my #100DaysOfInteresting I wanted to do something that I never achieved as a kid.

At school I remember we did an afternoon of origami with a supply teacher. I was terrible at it. My ability to patiently fold paper with accurate edges and keep up with the teacher's instructions, was poor to say the least. We were trying to do something slightly more complex than an aeroplane, but not quite at the level of a swan. Maybe it was a frog? Either way, I was useless at it and resorted to concertinaing my paper into a small fan, because that was about all I could manage.

Skip a few years and now aged 29 I thought it was about time I faced my origami demons and at least give it another go. Start simple, so a paper aeroplane was the challenge.

Find a style

Ok, so I had no idea that there were so many different styles of paper aeroplane. I assumed there was just the one standard model and they all kinda flew the same. Well, the things you learn! So I started with this one...

And my attempt turned out like this...

Looks wise, not a total disaster for a first attempt. But on flying, it seemed to want to keep veering right. Maybe only any good to fly on roundabouts. 

My husband then piped up with, "Ah, I'll show you how to make one," (had a feeling this interesting thing would pique the interest of my male housemates!) so followed his instructions and it turned out like this...

We'll call it the 'Tucker Tornado' and flying wise it was impressive, managing to go the full length of the corridor. 

There was time to try one more, so I picked The Dart. Apparently it's the 'fastest paper airplane'. Well, how could a gal resist making such a high-tech piece of aerodynamic paper on a Monday night?! Here's how to make it...

And here's how mine turned out. Not a bad resemblance, huh? Flying wise, it went well. It was fast, but didn't go quite as far as I hoped it would.

I could have quite easily have kept going as there were some cool looking designs, but I think I would have been rushing my origami skills with some of them. 

Interesting Paper Aeroplane Facts

To round off the first challenge of my #100DaysOfInteresting, here are 3 interesting facts about paper aircraft...

• The longest flight time a paper aeroplane has achieved is 29.2 seconds. For those readers that reckon they can beat it, you can actually upload videos of your attempt here. 
• According to this site, the smallest paper aircraft measured just 2.5mm x 1mm. That's tiny. How could you even launch it?! With tweezers?
• According to one news source, the oldest paper aeroplanes are over 100 years old and were discovered in the eaves of St Anne's Chapel, Barnstaple.