Paper Plane Academy › The best paper airplanes
The best paper airplanes
There’s no one best paper airplane: it depends what you want it to do. For distance, fold Suzanne, a former world record plane. To stay up longest, a broad-winged Glider. For a first plane, the classic Dart. For loops, the Looper. Each one below has a fold-along and a printable template.
Paper Plane Academy · Checked 14 November 2026
What do you want it to do?
The best paper airplane for distance
Suzanne, John Collins’s design, which held the world distance record from 2012 to 2022. A slim, firm-nosed dart that’s thrown hard comes next.
Suzanne
Joe Ayoob threw a Suzanne 69.14 m in 2012, and it stayed the farthest paper plane flight for ten years. It glides on long after a dart would have landed, so a hard throw keeps paying off.
How to throw it: Hard and upward, with a smooth follow-through, gripping it firmly toward the middle. The Mach 5 team found 40 degrees up worked best.
- Hammerin the Academy
A snub nose, long slim wings: flies far and true.
- Dartin the Academy
Quick and true.
- The Bird by Fold’N FlyTape on the nose
The farthest of Fold’N Fly’s designs we checked: 46.1 ft (14 m) on their average throw by a 10-year-old. Fold it at Fold’N Fly
- Mach 5 and “Research” by the 2022 and 2025 record teams
The planes that flew 88.31 m (2022) and 98.43 m (2025). Neither design is published: the Mach 5 is kept as Boeing’s intellectual property.
The best paper airplane for staying up longest
A broad-winged glider, thrown gently, or thrown high. Of ours, the Glider; the record holders, Takuo Toda’s Sky King and Ken Blackburn’s plane, are worth learning too.
Glider
Lift grows with the area of the wings, so broad wings hold a light plane up even when it’s slow, and a slow plane comes down slowly. That’s what the Glider is: a dart’s body with big wings.
How to throw it: Gently and level for a glide. For the longest time, throw it nearly straight up, as high as you can: that’s how Toda and Blackburn set their records.
- Suzannein the Academy
The distance record: glides on and on.
- Sky King by Takuo Toda
Folded from one sheet, “with no cuts and no gluing”; it flew 27.9 seconds and was one of Time’s best inventions of 2009. Toda held the time-aloft record more than once. Watch it folded (WIRED)
- BPS1 by Ken Blackburn, for Popular Science
A slow, gentle glider from the man who held the time-aloft record from 1998, with a free printable. Popular Science
- Stealth Glider by Fold’N Fly
Their longest-flying design we checked: 4.7 seconds on their average throw by a 10-year-old. Fold it at Fold’N Fly
The best paper airplane for beginners and kids
The classic Dart. It’s eight easy folds, and it forgives folds that aren’t quite even; Fold’N Fly calls its version “the perfect starter airplane”.
Dart
Every fold is a straight line to an edge or the middle, so it’s easy to get right, and it flies even when the two sides don’t quite match. Thrown hard and level, it goes straight and fast.
How to throw it: Hard and level, from the shoulder. Younger flyers do well with the Bulldog dart: its blunt nose likes a soft throw.
- Bulldog dartin the Academy
A blunt nose: steady and tough.
- Nakamura lockin the Academy
Steady, rarely stalls.
- Basic Dart by Fold’N Fly
“A forgiving airplane design that works well even with uneven or asymmetrical folds.” 40.8 ft (12.5 m) on their average 10-year-old’s throw. Fold’N Fly
The best paper airplane that flies straight and lasts
The Nakamura lock. A small lock folded over its nose holds every layer in place, so it flies steadily and survives being thrown again and again.
Nakamura lock
Loose layers flap open in the air and after a few landings; a locked nose doesn’t. It’s the classic dart with one more fold, named after Eiji Nakamura, the origami artist famous for his paper planes.
The best paper airplane for loops and tricks
The Looper: short, broad and with its wings tipped up, it loops the loop when thrown up hard. For a plane that comes back to you, the Boomerang John Collins folds for WIRED.
Looper
Bend the back edges of its wings up and a firm throw upward turns into a loop; the tighter the bend, the tighter the loop. Its tipped-up wings roll it back level after.
How to throw it: For a loop: firmly and upward, back edges bent up. For a glide: gently and level, edges flat.
- Gliderin the Academy
Floaty, wide loops.
- Boomerang by as folded by John Collins for WIRED
Built to curve round and come back to the thrower. Watch it folded (WIRED, one of five planes)
- The Tube by as shown by WIRED
A ring of paper that spins as it flies, 60 to 70 feet indoors; wind outdoors throws it about. Watch it folded (WIRED)
The best paper airplane for hitting a target
The Arrow: slim as a pencil, it goes where it’s pointed. Its narrow wings don’t catch much air, so it flies straight rather than drifting.
Arrow
Accuracy is flying straight and not floating off: a small, slim plane with a firm nose, thrown hard and level. The Arrow is the classic dart folded in once more.
How to throw it: Hard and level, straight at the target. If it pulls to one side, check the wings match before anything else.
- Dartin the Academy
Quick and true.
- Heavy dartin the Academy
Goes far, sinks fast.
Every plane in the Academy, side by side
All ten fold from one plain sheet of A4, with no cuts and no tape.
| Plane | Folds | How hard | How it flies | Best for | From |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Glider | 7 | Easy | Floaty, wide loops | Hang time, indoors | No known designer |
| Suzanne | 10 | A little fiddly | The distance record: glides on and on | Distance, long glides | John Collins |
| Dart | 8 | Easy | Quick and true | A first plane, speed | Traditional |
| Arrow | 10 | Easy | Slim, fast, dead straight | Speed, hitting a target | No known designer |
| Heavy dart | 10 | A little fiddly | Goes far, sinks fast | Hard throws, speed | No known designer |
| Looper | 7 | Easy | Tight loops, rolls easily | Loops and tricks | No known designer |
| Nakamura lock | 11 | A little fiddly | Steady, rarely stalls | Steady flights, lasting | Eiji Nakamura |
| Bulldog dart | 9 | Easy | A blunt nose: steady and tough | Gentle throws, lasting | The Art of Manliness |
| Harrier | 11 | A little fiddly | A locked nose, pointed wings: steady and quick | Steady flights, all-round | The Art of Manliness |
| Hammer | 14 | A little fiddly | A snub nose, long slim wings: flies far and true | Distance, flying straight | The Art of Manliness |
How we picked
Each pick is a plane you can fold here, from one plain sheet with no cuts or tape, chosen for what its shape is built to do: big wings to float, a slim body and firm nose to go far, a lock to hold together. Where a design has a record or a designer behind it, we say whose.
We haven’t run a throwing contest of our own, so every distance and time here is someone else’s measurement, credited: Guinness World Records for the records, Fold’N Fly for their designs’ averages (a 10-year-old’s throw, on Letter paper). The designs we don’t teach are linked to where their designers or a good source teach them.
Questions
What is the best paper airplane for distance?
Suzanne, designed by John Collins: Joe Ayoob threw one 69.14 m in 2012, the distance record until 2022. Any slim dart with a firm nose, thrown hard and upward, goes far too. The planes behind the newer records haven’t been published.
What paper airplane stays in the air the longest?
A broad-winged glider thrown high: record holders Takuo Toda and Ken Blackburn threw theirs nearly straight up. The longest so far is 31.2 seconds (February 2026). Of the Academy’s planes, the Glider floats longest.
What is the easiest paper airplane to make?
The classic Dart: eight easy folds, every one a straight line to an edge or the middle, and it still flies when the folds aren’t perfect. It’s the best first plane for kids and grown-ups alike.
What is the world record for a paper airplane?
The farthest flight is 98.43 m (322 ft 11 in), by Liu Liwen’s team in December 2025, as Guinness World Records lists it. The longest time aloft is 31.2 seconds, set in February 2026.
Can I fold the world record paper airplane?
Suzanne, the 2012 record plane, is in John Collins’s book and in the Academy (ours skips his trim, so it’s a whole sheet). The planes behind the 2022 and 2025 records haven’t been published.
What’s the best paper airplane for indoors?
A slow one: the Glider, or a tube (ring wing), which can fly 60 to 70 feet indoors. Indoors, there’s no wind to blow a slow plane off course; the world records are flown indoors too.