# Which came first the airplane or the paper airplane?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 8, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353 "2003-01-08T19:55:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353/1 "2003-01-08T19:55:04Z")

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I am guessing the since I see old tapes of people attempting to fly off the side of mountains with some crude form of glider that they based the design off a smaller hand held glider. So why don’t the “old time footage” of these attempts show a plain/glider in more of a shape like a hand held one would be? I’m sure available materials had something to do with it.

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**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353/2 "2003-01-08T20:28:42Z")

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The earliest reference I can find for paper airplnes dates them to 1908-09. So it looks like the airplane came first.

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353/3 "2003-01-08T20:31:38Z")

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Paper airplanes date back well over 1000 years in China.

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**Author:** ![Earthling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/90db22/32.png) [@Earthling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthling)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353/4 "2003-01-08T20:35:15Z")

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[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_017b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_017b.html)

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**Author:** ![squid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbce88/32.png) [@squid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squid)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-came-first-the-airplane-or-the-paper-airplane/147353/5 "2003-01-08T20:52:09Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Earthling \*  
> \*\*[http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3\_017b.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_017b.html) \*\*

My dope search did not find that one for some reason.  
Thanks, Earthling  
nanew nanew:D