Paper planes with the kids

The purpose of this blog, its reason for being, its mission statement is to ‘build a guide to surviving life in the 21st Century, from a geek perspective’.

Which is why this post is going to be about something that’s either 2000, several hundred or decades old - depending on how you define it.

I am of course talking about paper aeroplanes. The ultimate time wasting persuit of the bored schoolboy, bored office worker or generally anyway bored with a need to kill time

I spent many wasted hours at school trying to come up with a paper aeroplane design that was fast in a straight line, would go a long way and didn’t break apart.

I eventually found the ideal solution and it was along similar lines to that of concorde - a very thin design with a sharp point at the front.

You can download a PDF of my design if you like.

My eldest son is fast approaching five and reaching that age where things like paper planes are starting to become interesting - so I’ve been teaching him my design.

So far he, and in fact his older sister, haven’t managed to create it perfectly - they’ve got close a few times but not perfect.

So I’ve been building them at a rate of knots for the two kids, they’ve then been decorating them and taking them outside for a race to see who can cross the line the first.

So far it has been my sons planes as he isn’t a girl and doesn’t dress up his plane with loads of pointless crappy design additions - the pure paper is the best.

But I have a question - is it cheating if you include a tiny bit of masking tape to keep the plane together - just at the top and at the bottom?

Oh and I’m writing this while doing that other great school boy activity - watching women in short skirts running around a faux grass pitch hitting each other with sticks while getting all sweaty. I am of course talking about Womens Hockey at hte Olympics. It was either that or horsey shit.

Share/Save