# When Did the First Paper Airplane Take Flight? And What the Hell did it Look Like? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-first-paper-airplane-take-flight-and-what-the-hell-did-it-look-like/36706 "2000-10-12T19:22:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2000, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-first-paper-airplane-take-flight-and-what-the-hell-did-it-look-like/36706/1 "2000-10-12T19:22:49Z")
When Did the First Paper Airplane Take Flight? And What the Hell did it Look Like? Was it Before the Wright Brothers flew? Shortly thereafter? Most paper airplanes resemble swept wing jets, and they’re most conveneient to make out of square or rectangular paper. Was this always the case? What did they hey-days of paper airplane aviation look like? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2000, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-first-paper-airplane-take-flight-and-what-the-hell-did-it-look-like/36706/2 "2000-10-12T19:28:54Z")
Cecil’s column: [Which came first, paper airplanes or real ones?](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_017b.html) > [@](#): > > Credit for the first paper airplane is generally given to Leonardo da Vinci, prompting Scientific American magazine to name the prize awarded in its 1967-68 paper airplane contest the Leonardo. > > … > > One can argue that the true father of the paper airplane–at least the one true father of whom we have any detailed knowledge–was an English squire named George Cayley, who built gliders around 1800. Cayley constructed several of these from kites (linen rather than paper, but close enough) fastened to poles, which he flung like a javelin from a hillside near his home. After a little fine-tuning he found he could get up considerable distance, and a new form of recreation for sixth-grade recess was born. > > … > > As for who designed the classic paper “dart” known to every school child–well, we don’t know for sure. We do know that in 1867 J.W. Butler and E. Edwards of Great Britain proposed a human-sized dart that was virtually identical in design, if not in scale, to the modern paper variety. (The propellant was not to have been a giant hand, however, but rather a solid fuel.) The plane was never built and it was a long time before practical delta-winged aircraft emerged. But some bored grade schooler either ripped off Butler-Edwards or had a remarkably similar inspiration, because the design has been the foundation of 90 percent of paper aircraft constructed since. ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2000, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-first-paper-airplane-take-flight-and-what-the-hell-did-it-look-like/36706/3 "2000-10-12T19:47:57Z")
My bad! I looked around, but did realize this topic was covered. Thanks for the info! ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 2000, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-the-first-paper-airplane-take-flight-and-what-the-hell-did-it-look-like/36706/4 "2000-10-12T21:55:51Z")
Oooh, oooh, oooh! My favorite paper airplane story… Somewhere, someone sponsors an annual paper plane contest held inside a huge, unobstructed gymnasium. (Can’t say if it’s Scientific American’s contest or not, but probably is.) The rules limit the materials to a handful of conventional items like paper, tape, and glue. Naturally, one of the most covetted prizes is for distance covered. While the aeronautical engineers who compete take the contest somewhat seriously, many planes come from kids and amateurs, giving the event a homey, informal tone. In that spirit, the sponsors accept mail-in entries from people who can not attend in person. These planes usually come packed in shoe boxes with instructions, like “hold 2 inches from front when launching,” which the judges do their best to comply with. Anyway, several years back they received a mail-in entry which consisted of nothing more than a tightly wadded ball of paper, wrapped in Scotch tape and dipped in glue. The accompanying instructions read simply: _“Throw very, very hard.”_ Needless to say it put the judges in quite an embarrassing spot when this entry won the distance title. However, a hastily convened conference enabled the sponsors to save face. The judges decided to disqualify the flying paper sphere on the grounds that the entry did not technically “fly”; it was a projectile, not a glider, they concluded.