Video: At 800 Pounds and 45 Feet Long, The Largest-Ever Paper Airplane Takes Flight

By Clay Dillow Posted 03.26.2012 at 2:01 pm 11 Comments

Arturo's Desert Eagle Ascends Pima Air & Space Museum

Arturo Valdenegro, 12-year-old Tucson resident, made paper aviators everywhere look minuscule by comparison last week. In the skies over the Sonora desert in Arizona, the Pima Air & Space Museum launched the biggest paper airplane ever constructed--a paper airplane based on Valdenegro’s design--into the sky, accelerating it to speeds topping 100 miles per hour before it came crashing down (as paper airplanes do).

The plane, aptly named Arturo’s Desert Eagle, weighed 800 pounds and stretched 45 feet long with a 24-foot wingspan. The museum constructed it out of falcon board, a kind of corrugated cardboard, as part of its Giant Paper Airplane Project, the goal of which is to generate interest in aviation and engineering among young people.

Arturo designed and folded his plane for the competition, winning top honors in a fly-off sponsored by the Pima museum. But for last week’s flight, his design was adopted and constructed by Art Thompson, one of the designers of the B-2 stealth bomber.

The idea was initially to tow Arturo’s Desert Eagle up to roughly 5,000 feet and let it fly, but the pilot of the Sikorsky S58T helicopter that was doing the towing decided that the wind conditions wouldn’t allow it. The tether was cut at about 2,700 feet, which was still plenty high to allow the giant paper plane to glide for about ten seconds, hitting speeds of 100 miles per hour before tail stress brought it crashing to the ground. For his part, Valdenegro told the museum that he’s now convinced that a career in engineering is the right move for him when he gets older. Given the video below, his resume already looks pretty solid.

[LA Times]

Previous Article: Taiwanese Students Use Personal Seismic Sensors to Monitor Earthquakes

Next Article: New Plastic Bleeds Red When Scratched, Then Heals Itself Like Skin

11 Comments

Link to this comment

menoc

03/26/12 at 4:32 pm

Nothing fake about this video. It's a true story. All that you have to do is a little cross checking. . .
BTW, The shaky video is caused by the helicopters winds and a cameraman handholding the camera.

http://azstarnet.com/news/local/desert-eagle-flight-trial-a--second-success/article_ae4ea277-7086-527a-961f-6a5f1037ec65.html

Link to this comment

Amun-Ra

03/26/12 at 9:55 pm

This thing will never fly right. It is missing a giant paper clip, sheesh!

Link to this comment

quasi44

03/27/12 at 8:52 am

Now to construct a spitwad cannon of like dimensions.

Link to this comment

johnt007871

03/27/12 at 11:12 am

Downward folded wingtips... well done.

In our school's paper airplane contest I taped 2 small wings on a tightly packed brick of paper clips (approved materials) and threw it like a rock. Some say it was cheating, but they didn't win the Jolly Ranchers...

Link to this comment

GMarsack

03/27/12 at 11:39 am

@johnt007871, I approve your design. :) Wrap the paper clips in a fuel soaked rag and light it on fire and call it the Phoenix. :D

---
In space, no one can hear a tree fall in the forest.

Link to this comment

killerT

03/27/12 at 12:19 pm

Why is the video cut short? You would think they wouldn't want us to miss any of their glorious ten seconds of flight from each of the HD cameras used.
The most exciting part, and hardest to fake, the crash, is not shown.
If this turns out to be fake I'm deleting my PopSci account.
You people are loosing respect for science.

Link to this comment

JediMindset

03/27/12 at 5:27 pm

i say lets settle our differences between countries with good old paper plane battles.

"religion is like a prison for the seekers of wisdom"

-Killah Priest

Link to this comment

Akim91

04/01/12 at 7:13 pm

My father showed me how to make a glider airplane. It makes me wonder how fair it would have flown if it was made like this one.

@johnt007871 I won my classes contest by making a jet, the most basic of planes. Fold it in half, unfold it. Fold each side to where the crease is from the first fold. Do it two more times. The harder you throw it the further it goes lol.

Link to this comment

johnysmith

05/28/12 at 11:12 pm

talking about paper planes this X-45C Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle is one of the best paper plane i've seen so far :))

http://airsoc.com/articles/view/id/4f977df5c6f8fafa58000002/boeing-x-45c-unmanned-combat-air-vehicle-papercraft?ev=10&evp=tl

Popular Tags

Technology

All Tags All Photos All Videos

Technology

+ More Photo Galleries

June 2013: American Energy Independence

Five amazing, clean technologies that will set us free, in this month's energy-focused issue. Also: how to build a better bomb detector, the robotic toys that are raising your children, a human catapult, the world's smallest arcade, and much more.