A Little History of Origami Planes

By: Victor Torrealba

The history of paper airplanes has in no way really been established, but it is supposed that the first piece of flying paper was likely a damaged piece of the original paper tossed away from the garbage. Paper is supposed to have originated with the Chinese around 2000 years ago, so most flight historians believe that this is where the first paper airplanes may have originated.

Paper was used for a lot of things in the antiquity, and in the orient, they used paper for such things as origami which is the Japanese art of paper folding. It only seemed like a matter of time before they realized that because of the light weight of paper, that it could sail through the air.

In China, they have used paper in the design of their kites as well. This has also been traced back to about 2000 years ago. And today, if you rigged everything up correctly and you used a paper that was heavier than your normal writing paper, you would be able to fly your paper airplane just like you would a kite. In fact, if you look at the basic design of a kite, it bears a striking resemblance to what your paper airplane might look like today.

Just like any other flight device, there has been an evolution of paper airplanes to the point where they have become real serious flying machines.

Gliders, like paper airplanes, don´t have engines. However, gliders have travelled ever 1,000 miles in one flight and have reached altitudes of more than eight miles above earth.

The longest recorded distance flown by a paper airplane thrown from the ground indoors is 193 fest (more than twice the length of a basketball court). It was thrown by Tony filch in la crease, Wisconsin, on may 21, 1965.

Starting 2000 years ago, the Chinese first figured out that paper could fly. Through generations of fathers and sons, and any airplane enthusiast alike, the designs have been refined using science, better paper, and whole lot of imagination.

Blimps and balloons float in the air for the same reason that corks float in water. The helium in a balloon weighs less than air, just like cork weighs less than water.

In the next articles, we will give you a little bit of the science behind why a paper airplane flies, and what makes a good paper airplane and how to keep it from crashing in a spiraling mess.

Article Source: http://www.collectibles-articles.com

Victor Torrealba is the developer of origami-kids.com, a amusant place for learn how to fold paper airplanes , Victor also has a amusing free game web site : zonaminada.net

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