Lift
The wings turn the air downward, and the air pushes back up on them. No motion, no lift: it needs to be moving.
Why paper planes fly
A paper plane is the simplest glider there is. Your throw gets it going; after that it trades height for speed, and its wings turn the air to hold it up. Throw one below and watch the forces at work.
The glide lab
Change how hard you throw it, how big its wings are and how much its nose is tipped up, then let go (or tap the sky). Earlier flights stay behind, faint, to compare.
liftdragweight
Lift, as it leaves your hand: its weight
Once it leaves your hand: three forces
A plane with an engine has four forces on it. A paper plane gets its push from your throw, and then it’s a glider: just three, and it trades height for speed.
Weight
Gravity, pulling it down. A plane turns about its centre of gravity, so where its weight sits decides how it flies.
Drag
The air pushing back as it moves through it. It’s what slows a plane down, and why it can’t glide for ever.
A flat wing, at an angle
A real wing is curved. A paper plane’s is flat, and still flies: its nose is tipped up a little into the air, so the wing meets it at an angle and turns it downward. That angle is the angle of attack. More angle, more lift, up to a point (in the lab, about 15°; real planes vary); past it the air can’t follow the wing, lift falls away, and it stalls. Try the nose slider in the lab.
Why paper makes a good wing
Air can’t get through it: a sheet is layer upon layer of fibres locked together, so the air has to go round, and pushes on it as it does. And it’s light, stiff enough to hold its shape, and holds a crease, and a bend at the back of a wing to trim it.
Trim it: when it dives, or stalls
A paper plane’s centre of gravity is a little ahead of where its lift pushes, so its nose wants to drop. Bending the back edges of the wings up or down is how you balance that.
It dives into the ground
Bend the back edges of the wings up a little. That lifts the nose.
The nose rises, then drops
It’s stalling. Bend the back edges of the wings down a little.
It turns one way
Check the wings match first. Still turning left? Bend the back edge of the right wing up a little (and the other way round).
Try every plane
Pick one: it’s on the stand. Throw it, and it takes off over this page; catch it, throw it again, or call it back.
The Dart is on the stand. Throw it, and see how it flies.
Stories from the sky
- 1864
The oldest known instructions
An American children’s book from 1864 describes how to fold a paper plane: as far back as anyone has traced them.
- 1930
A test bench made of paper
Jack Northrop, a co-founder of Lockheed, built flying paper models to try out designs for real aircraft.
- 1983
16.89 seconds
Aeronautical engineer Ken Blackburn kept a paper plane up for 16.89 seconds, on his third try. He held the time-aloft record on and off until the late 1990s, ending at 27.6 seconds in 1998.
- 2006
A world championship
Red Bull Paper Wings began: a world championship of paper planes, for distance, hang time and aerobatics, with the finals in Hangar-7 in Salzburg.
- 2010
Thrown from the edge of space
The PARIS project lifted a paper plane under a balloon to almost 90,000 feet and let it go to glide back down.
- 2012
Suzanne’s record
John Collins designed it, Joe Ayoob threw it: 69.14 m inside a 747 hangar at McClellan Air Force Base.
- 2017
Into the Toy Hall of Fame
The paper airplane was inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame in the United States.
- 2022
“Mach 5”
Three engineers’ design, inspired by hypersonic vehicles, flew 88.31 m: a new distance record.
- 2025
98.43 metres
In December, Liu Liwen and a team of five set the distance record at 98.43 m (322 ft 11 in).
- 2026
31.2 seconds, and 20 metres wide
In February a team of seven kept a paper plane up for 31.2 seconds. In June, students in Bologna flew the largest paper plane ever made: 20.04 m from wingtip to wingtip.
Watch
The 2012 world record throwThe Paper Airplane Guy (John Collins)Joe Ayoob throws Suzanne 69.14 m.
How to fold the world record paper airplaneThe Paper Airplane Guy (John Collins)Suzanne, folded by the man who designed it.
Aerodynamics explained by a world record paper airplane designerWIREDHow a paper plane flies, from the man who designed one that held the world record.
Four forces of flight with paper airplanesU.S. Space & Rocket CenterThe forces, shown with paper planes.
Takuo Toda’s 29.2 second flightTHE SKYKINGA paper plane that just won’t come down.
Kim Kyu Tae’s 77 metre throwGuinness World RecordsThe distance record from April to December 2022.
Red Bull Paper Wings 2015Red BullThe paper plane world championship.
Ken Blackburn’s record flightKen BlackburnFrom the engineer who held the time-aloft record.Learn more
- Three Forces on a GliderNASA Glenn“Paper airplanes are the simplest gliders to build and fly.”
- What is Lift?NASA GlennLift comes from turning the air. No motion, no lift.
- Factors That Affect LiftNASA GlennSpeed, wing area, and how the wing meets the air.
- What is Drag?NASA GlennThe force that holds it back.
- Aircraft Center of GravityNASA GlennThe point a plane turns about.
- How do paper airplanes fly without a curved wing?Smithsonian, How Things FlyFlat wings, and the angle of attack.
- How to Make Paper AirplanesExploratoriumWhy paper works, and how to trim a plane.
- Paper planeWikipediaHistory, records and science, with references.
In the classroom
- 3-2-1 TakeoffNASA, ages 5 to 13Tiny paper planes launched by blowing through a straw.
- Wingin’ ItNASA, ages 10 to 18Teams test how a plane’s design changes how far it flies.
- The Ring Wing GliderNASA, ages 5 to 13A glider with round wings, then make it better.
- The HoopsterExploratoriumTwo paper hoops and a straw that fly.
- A paper airplane science projectPaper Plane AcademyA fair test, step by step: the question, the variables, the method and a results table.
- Printable templatesPaper Plane AcademyEvery plane on one A4 sheet, creases numbered, steps on the back.