The Lightning paper airplane

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diagram of flying fish paper airplane

The Lightning Paper Airplane Folding Instructions

Start with a sheet of paper as in DIG. 1 and crease hard down the center making a valley fold.
DIG. 1
Now fold (as indicated by the arrows in DIG. 2) the top left corner down so the top edge lies along the right hand side, creasing hard. Unfold and repeat with the top right hand corner so the top edge lies along the left hand side and unfold.
DIG. 2
The next step is to fold the top edge down following the arrows in DIG. 3. The top left corner should meet the bottom left end of the diagonal folds made in step 2. The top right should meet the bottom right of these folds. This will give you DIG. 4.
DIG. 3
DIG. 4
Open out the plane again and fold in on the lines in DIG. 5 to give DIG. 6
DIG. 5
Now fold down the triangle at the top of the plane to touch the point at which the two corners from step 4 meet. This means folding down on the line in DIG. 6 to give DIG. 7
DIG. 6
DIG. 7
Now pull the ends of the horizontal crease formed earlier and pull them in towards the centre line as indicated in DIG. 8
DIG. 8
Now take the vertical flap which will have been created by step 6 and is shown in DIG. 9 and then press it flat to give DIG. 10.
DIG. 9
Fold the top triangle along the horizontal line in DIG. 10 folding it underneath as the arrow indicates.
DIG. 10
Tuck your fingers into each of the triangular flaps formed in turn and pull them out as indicated in DIG. 11.
DIG. 11
Press these flaps flat to give the form shown in DIG. 12
DIG. 12
Now fold along the centre crease again to give DIG. 13.
DIG. 13
Fold along the lines in DIG. 13 to give the view from behind of the plane shown as the dihedral below.
Dihedral

The Lightning Paper Airplane Flying Lesson

This plane is one of my own designs and is named in homage to magnificent P-38 Lightning fighter airplane of WWII in having twin fuselages see pictures here.
Throw underarm quite hard holding the nose between forefinger and thumb or even better throw very hard straight up in the air in a large hall.
If made slightly assymetrically this plane should gracefully loop down to earth in a wide circle and will stay aloft for a long time. This plane has many of the aspects common to world record beating paper aircraft. To learn more about the current record holder for flight duration visit Ken Blackburn's site and to learn more about world records visit the Paper Aircraft Association which are both linked from my Links page.

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