Sunday, November 27, 2005

The Perfect Paper Plane

The Guardian reports on How to make the perfect paper plane - this Flash shows how to make the Leeds Avenger, the best designed plane at this week's British Flying Dead Trees Championships. Note that it got beaten by a simpler model called the Spruce Moose, as Martin Wainwright reports that :

"... In the best tradition of British inventions, this [the Avenger] repeatedly went into terminal nose dives in spite of complex flaps and tucks which had earned the judges' admiration..."

I also like the line describing other entries in the contest:

"...Other designers increasingly opted for desperately novel throwing techniques, last minute flap additions and in one case what looked like prayers...

The winning entry lasted 6.5 seconds before it met a well, but even otherwise it would have had trouble staying afloat the additional 20 seconds required to break the world record.