Aerodynamics of a piece of paper.............

[MaxQ]

Real interesting vids of the world record holder for a paper plane.

(1) How This Guy Folds and Flies World Record Paper Airplanes | WIRED - YouTube


(1) How John Collins Broke the Longest Paper Airplane Flight World Record | Ripley's Believe It Or Not! - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHwuee3q8fg


(1) Aerodynamics Explained by a World Record Paper Airplane Designer | Level Up | WIRED - YouTube
www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KqjRPV9_PY

 

[Funkworks]

I wonder how big is the biggest paper airplane ever built so far. Suppose the criteria are:

1. Starting with a single sheet having any dimensions.
2. The only allowed steps are manual bendings of the sheet.

 

[dr wogz]

recommended reading:

The Paper Ace (1987 edition) | Open Library

The Paper Ace by Peter Vollheim, 1987, Contemporary Books edition, in English

openlibrary.org

I remember a 'makes you think' question from a number of years ago:

for the argument:
The ISS has a room / module the size of a small high school gym (yeah, I know.. for the argument remember..)
And one of the ISS team decided to make a paper airplane (a typical one, your choice)
They launch / toss it in the large room / module..

What is the flight path of the paper plane?



What if they brought & tossed a free-flight balsa & tissue plane? (They built a Gullow's kit during their 6 month stay..) Or a rubber band powered stick & tissue plane?

 

[OverTheTop]

It would likely hit the "ceiling", whichever way that was at launched, unless the wings are set to zero AoA. On Earth they need some AoA to provide lift, against gravity, but not in space.

Any dihedral used for stabilisation would be ineffective in microgravity also, so it would likely roll during flight.

 

[BABAR]

recommended reading:

The Paper Ace (1987 edition) | Open Library

The Paper Ace by Peter Vollheim, 1987, Contemporary Books edition, in English

openlibrary.org

I remember a 'makes you think' question from a number of years ago:

for the argument:
The ISS has a room / module the size of a small high school gym (yeah, I know.. for the argument remember..)
And one of the ISS team decided to make a paper airplane (a typical one, your choice)
They launch / toss it in the large room / module..

What is the flight path of the paper plane?



What if they brought & tossed a free-flight balsa & tissue plane? (They built a Gullow's kit during their 6 month stay..) Or a rubber band powered stick & tissue plane?

Under zero G or microgravity, likely best design for distance would be a high mass low diameter 3 fin rocket shaped design. I initially thought a wadded up ball, as dense as possible, but rather than a sphere, a rocket shape with just enough fins for stability would likely give you highest mass and lowest drag. Neutral taped fin airfoils would help.

of course, if you step outside, with no gravity and no atmosphere (I guess technically not true, the exosphere goes out to 6200 miles, and the ISS is ONLY 254 miles up) it doesn’t matter because there is almost no atmosphere at all.

Exosphere | NASA Space Place – NASA Science for Kids

The outermost layer

spaceplace.nasa.gov

Apollo moon feather and hammer demo

 

[justforfun]

I remembered this.

World's largest paper airplane flies over desert

At a length of 45 feet (13.7 meters), a wingspan of 24 feet (7.3 m), and a weight of 800 pounds (363 kg), Arturo’s Desert Eagle is claimed to be the largest paper airplane ever made. Its design was based on that of a much smaller paper airplane, created by 12 year-old Arturo Valdenegro of Tucson,…

newatlas.com