So assume you are on top of a mountain maybe 4 miles tall and threw a paper air plane.
What is the highest possible glide ratio of a paper airplane?
What role would wind play in pushing the plane forward? How would a wind assist help the glide ratio?
Is the strength of the thrower a factor? Would an NFL quarterback throwing the plane make a difference for total distance vs a 10 year old throwing it?
I believe the warm air currents rising up keep gliders afloat for essentially as long as the sun is up. Many birds use the same currents to keep gliding.
British scientist C. J. Elton found frozen winged aphids on northeastern Svalbard, 1300 km from their closest breeding site on the Kola peninsula. (My cite for this fact: Carl H Lindroth: Från insekternas värld, Stockholm 1971.) Sure, they must have used powered flight to get airborne, but once in the air they were no doubt carried there by the wind. So make your paper airplane really small, and throw it into a good, steady wind - who knows, maybe it can travel a thousand miles?
