Welcome!

Welcome to my blog! I'm going to be sharing my experiences, designs, and attempts at designing and constructing paper airplane models. But before going forward, let's take a quick step back. Here is how I got here...

I have always enjoyed building paper airplanes. My experience started with the basics: folding a single sheet of paper into a triangular dart. Not satisfied with chucking eye-gouging missiles, I explored the design further, changing the folding lines, adding control surfaces and stabilizers, etc, etc, etc. (Practically everyone knows how to fold this type of airplane, so unless it becomes a highly-requested topic, this is the last you'll hear about it in this blog!) In the end, they were all triangles, and I wanted realism. To the library!

The books I found on paper airplanes ranged from folding guides to books on actual paper models. The folding guides were fun, but still didn't offer the realism I sought. The model books offered instructions for really realistic planes, but hey were based on photo-copy patterns of shaped panels, were difficult to assemble, and DIDN'T FLY. Fail.

I had one more option--a book tucked away with the origami books. Not holding high hopes (based on my experience with the unrealistic folded planes), I pulled it from the shelf. BINGO! "Super Paper Airplanes: Biplanes to Space Planes" by Norman Schmidt. He presented a series of easy-to-assemble paper airplanes, which looked realistic (enough), AND were capable of flight (the function of which he also describes in detail). I later bought the book, and have since built all of its planes MULTIPLE times.

These models offer a lot of entertainment, but after a few years of the same thing over and over, I yearn or more. So why not design my own? From other aspects of my aviation passion (which I may write about if there's ever a lull or dearth in content), I am familiar with a large variety of planes from different eras, manufacturers, etc. After building so many paper models, I had the necessary skills. Finally, armed with an understanding of the format used by Schmidt, I had a good idea of design and construction. It's go time.

So, here we are. I am going to embark on designing and building new and exciting paper airplane models. I'll post ideas for new planes, steps along the design path, and--of course--construction attempts and the final builds. Plus, if a model works well, I'll post instructions for you to build your own! If it doesn't work, well, it's back to the drawing board for me.

I hope you enjoy watching over my shoulder--I'll try to keep things interesting!