National Paper Airplane Day

Paper was invented in China around 105 CE. Chinese artisans began making paper kites soon after, and then smaller paper models that could be folded and thrown. Leonardo da Vinci, in his 1510 notebooks, sketched an "ornithopter" that he described testing with paper models. (Whether da Vinci himself made the first Western paper airplanes is disputed, but he certainly sketched the concept.)

The modern paper airplane, the specific Dart-like fold everyone learns, was developed in the early 20th century, partly inspired by the Wright Brothers' 1903 Wright Flyer. Jack Northrop, co-founder of Lockheed Corporation in the 1930s, used paper airplane testing to work out wing designs for real aircraft. Many aerospace engineers still test scale aerodynamic models with folded paper.

The Guinness World Record for paper airplane distance belongs to John Collins ("The Paper Airplane Guy"), whose design flew 226 feet, 10 inches in 2012, thrown by former NFL quarterback Joe Ayoob. A later throw reached 252 feet, 7 inches in South Korea in 2022. Collins's designs are detailed in his book The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book. The folds are teachable; the throw requires an athletic arm.

National Paper Airplane Day falls on May 26. Its origin is informal, some versions credit corporate folder's workshops; others credit 1970s elementary school traditions. The point is the continuity: paper airplanes have been a universal human activity for 1,900 years, and they're still among the most free, fun, and physics-dense crafts any kid (or adult) can do with a sheet of paper.

Four forces that determine whether your plane flies or flops:

Six designs worth knowing. Each has a purpose: