How do origami and aerospace intersect? For some, the overlap comes with paper airplanes. Three aerospace engineers’ love of both landed a world record.
Engineers Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen started paper-folding early. They had parents who worked for Boeing. The friends folded paper airplanes as kids at company picnics. Ruble says “a fun childhood activity” turned into “a long-term passion.” The two, along with Nathaniel Erickson, now work at the Boeing Company.
To prepare for a world record attempt, the three engineers studied origami and how air flows around an object. They needed their paper plane to fly far quickly. Their design borrowed inspiration from hypersonic aircraft to emphasize speed and reduce drag. That’s the slowing force of air against the plane in flight.
The trio’s design takes more than 20 minutes to fold. Ruble calls it “a little different from your traditional ‘fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle line.’”
After the design phase came months of practice folding and throwing—and numerous test planes. The three filmed practice throws and watched the videos in slow motion. “We would theorize about a fold we could change on our plane,” Ruble says. Then the team would “fold it, throw it, and compare the distance to previous [versions] to determine if the change was beneficial.”
The engineers learned the exact angle at which to throw for distance. They figured out what size and weight of paper made the best planes. (Spoiler: It’s A4 paper, which is slightly bigger than regular copy paper. A heavier-than-normal weight worked best.)
The Guinness World Record attempt came last December. On his third throw, Ruble ran and then threw 40 degrees upward as hard as he could. The plane, named Mach 5, flew for about six seconds. It soared 289 feet, nine inches in an indoor stadium. That’s more than 30 feet farther than the previous record and nearly the length of an American football field.
Ruble says repeated trials throwing the plane proved how important testing and model-making are for scientific progress. That works both for paper planes and in more scientific situations.
Imagine setting a world record for something you’ve worked at for years. Proverbs 13:19 says working hard can be rewarding: “A desire fulfilled is sweet to the soul.”
While helpful, engineering degrees aren’t required for paper airplane building. “Anyone can hone their [sic] skills to throw paper airplanes farther and higher,” says Ruble.
The record-setting team hopes the recent triumph inspires future engineers. Working hard and aiming high are sound advice, paper plane or no paper plane.
Why? Research, testing, and re-testing sounds like a lot of hard work. But discovering how to use God’s scientific laws for a purpose is worth the effort.
