Longest Paper Airplane

The world’s longest paper airplane was built by NASA. The plane is 30 feet, 6 inches long. The project was built in part due to some students from Hampton, Virginia who wanted to make a large paper plane. Not only is it the longest, it is also the biggest paper airplane ever made. 

 

 

Doctor Ferdinand Grosveld worked for NASA's Langley Research Center. He thought of making the airplane as a way to get students excited about science and engineering. The goal was to beat the record for a 16 ft plane that flew a distance of 50 ft. 

 

Adhesives were the only materials that were used for the construction. They originally planned to make the plane 18 ft long. But they decided to make it longer. When the plane was finished, it flew over 114 ft 9 inches, well over the previous record of 50 feet. The longest paper ever built is kept in the Air and Space Center in Virginia. 

 

 

The Dillon works plane is considered by some as one of the longest paper airplanes ever made. It is 26 feet long and weighs a ton. However, the plane is made from various materials like wood and fiberglass. 

 

 

The UK record for the longest flight for paper aircraft is 20.9 seconds. This is an indoor record. It was done at the British Aerospace Defense LTD by Chris Edge and Andy Currey. They flew the airplane one after the other and had the same time. It was done on July 28, 1996 in Bedfordshire, England. The longest record aloft is 27.6 seconds. It was done by Ken Blackburn in the US. 

 

The longest distance flown by the paper airplane is 193 feet (58.82 m). It was performed by Tony Fletchin Wisconsin, US on May 21, 1985. 

 

The longest wingspan is 40 ft 10in (1.97 m). It was created by the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering students at Delft University. The plane flew a distance 114 ft 2 in (34.80 m). It was launched on a platform 10 ft (3 m) high. To comply with the regulations, the plane flew 50 ft (15.24 m) at the platform’s edge. It could have gone much farther but was blocked by a wall. 

 

NASA and many aerospace engineers create paper airplanes to test air aircraft behavior and flight patterns. In the case of the longest paper airplane ever, it was mainly a fun project.