Paper airplane designed by Boeing engineers breaks world distance record

[GON]

)It's a bird... It's a plane... It's a paper airplane!

The world record for the farthest flight by paper airplane has been broken by three aerospace engineers with a paper aircraft that flew a grand total of 289 feet, 9 inches (88 meters), nearly the length of an American football field.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/14/world/paper-airplane-boeing-engineers-world-record-scn/index.html

 

[Pew]

That's awesome! I've gotten in trouble with paper airplanes more times than I can count in my younger years. I'm disappointed there's no pictures of it, I'd like to recreate it and throw it through my neighbor's window.

 

[MRC01]

I couldn't find any pictures of the airplane. Seems like they're keeping it a secret.

 

[y_p_w]

I recall one of these competitions where some made an unaerodynamic missile made of paper and glue that was shaped like a ball. Someone with a strong arm could throw it like a baseball at close to a 45 degree angle. It was apparently disqualified on the basis of not being meant for aerodynamic flight.

 

[Danno]

Had a team building session where the winner was determined by the team with the longest airplane flight. No preconditions on the plane's design. Crumpled up some paper in a ball shape, won the competition...easily.
Can't say a golf ball isn't meant for aerodynamic flight.

 

[skyactiv]

Does the pressurized building help any?

 

[MRC01]

The definition of "flying" and how to differentiate it from "falling" or simply being in the air seems to have a thread of ambiguity no matter how precisely one tries to define it.

We can say "flying" requires generating lift, even if it's only temporary lift (a fuel powered aircraft) or less lift than the object's mass (a glider or flying squirrel). But the dimples on a golf ball can generate lift (not just reduce drag) if it's spinning in the right way. And intuitively it seems to me that a flying squirrel flies, while a golf ball doesn't fly, but is in the same category as a stone.

 

[billt460]

I'm disappointed there's no pictures of it, I'd like to recreate it and throw it through my neighbor's window.

I couldn't find any pictures of the airplane. Seems like they're keeping it a secret.

I agree. I would have liked to have seen pictures of the plane....... Not the guys who designed it.

 

[BusyLittleShop]

Their paper airplane broke the distance record flying like an arrow in an arch... it did not glide 289 feet...

 

[Cujet]

Their paper airplane broke the distance record flying like an arrow in an arch... it did not glide 289 feet...

That was my guess, a paper dart. All the clues were there.

I'd like to see a different methodology, concentrating on best glide distance from a fixed release point, speed and angle.

 

[billt460]

Is it possible for that same guy, (not an NFL quarterback), to throw a dart the length of a football field? I don't know, I don't play darts or football. I'm just asking.

 

[SC Maintenance]

Found a vid of it. Doesn't show much, does seem to glide a bit. Vid is indexed to start with the Boeing folks throwing it.