Most historians believe that the Chinese were the first to build paper aircraft because they are credited as the early inventors of paper. It seems logical that they would be the first ones to find a creative use for the substance because they were rich in papyrus and other materials used for making paper. In France, during the 1700s, the Montgovier brothers used paper to make hot air balloons. In 1783, they made the first human carrying hot air balloon from a paper lined cloth. Leonardo Da Vinci once wrote that he used parchment paper to build models of his helicopter. The Wright brothers are said to have used paper planes as part of their research into building the first human carrying …show more content…
Because of rationing, it was no longer possible to make toys from plastic or metal because the U.S. was using most of it for the war. Paper, however, was widely available for children's toys. Some of the most popular paper airplanes during this time were designed by Wallis Rigby. Rigby was an Englishman who moved to the United States in the 1930s. He published his models as books or box sets, although some were printed in the Sunday newspaper as part of the comic section. Many of the models had rather bizarre color schemes because of the shortage of ink at the time. Rigby's designs had a "tab and slot" construction and are prized as collector's items today. In 1944, General Mills had a promotion that offered to send children two paper airplane models in exchange for two Wheaties box tops and five cents. There were 14 models in the series, including WWII fighter airplanes like the Curtis P-40 Flying Tiger, the British Spitfire, the Japanese Zero, and the German Focke-Wulf.
The aerodynamics of paper airplane flight is actually very complicated. You need to know that the basics of paper airplane flight, and regular airplane flight, are identical because they both create lift and drag. However paper airplanes look different than most airplanes. There are also some aerodynamic differences between paper airplanes and regular planes. These differences are not so definite, but do affect how paper airplanes …show more content…
It depends somewhat on what kind of conditions you are flying the paper airplanes in. If there is more wind, there is more air that can get under the wings, so then the paper airplane will fly farther. The lower the density the worse the flight is going to be. Speed increases with altitude so the lower the density the slower it flies. The greater the wingspan, the greater the surface area. The greater the surface area the greater the lift. The greater the lift the longer flight duration meaning that wider paper airplanes should fly farther. But when there is no wind longer paper airplanes fly farther than wider ones because of drag and lift. When the thinner, longer paper airplane flies, it darts through the air like when you dive into the water at the pool. You put your hands out in front of you to break the surface of the water so that you can go down farther and it won’t hurt as much as much as landing straight down on your head. When a paper airplane flies through the air the tip of it acts like your hands going through the air like a dart making it and you go farther. Then the wings help it stay afloat like when your are making a large heavy boat out of concrete. You want to make the boat wider so that it displaces a lot of water. Just like paper airplanes the wings create lift lifting the paper airplane into the air so the wider wings help it stay aloft in the air longer. Then the force of drag comes into