Do you like making paper airplanes? If you like origami, we’re sure you’d enjoy making paper airplanes, too. All it takes is some paper and a few simple supplies.
Paper airplanes can be fun to fly around the house or outside in the yard. You can decorate them with any color or patterns that you like. If you play with a friend, you can race your paper airplanes and see whose can go the highest or the farthest!
No one knows for sure when the first paper airplane was created. Sometimes, historians give credit to Leonardo da Vinci. However, paper folding and kite making were both popular in Asia hundreds of years ago, so it’s likely the first paper airplanes may have been made long, long ago.
In Japan, the art of folding paper is called origami. Some people call the art of making paper airplanes aerogami.
Paper airplanes are obviously lots of fun to play with. But did you realize that they can be more than just toys? It’s true!
Since paper airplanes glide through the air, they can teach scientists and engineers a lot about basic concepts of flight, engineering and aerodynamics. In fact, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) once sent a paper airplane into space on a space shuttle!
If you’re wondering how a paper airplane would fly in outer space, you might be surprised by the answer. According to scientists, paper airplanes won’t actually fly in outer space, because there’s no atmosphere. Instead, paper airplanes would simply float in a straight line and could possibly float forever unless they hit another object!
The Wright Brothers also used paper airplanes to test out their theories about flight before making their first flight. They built a wind tunnel and used paper airplanes to gain a better understanding of how their aircraft would operate in the wind.
So just how far can a paper airplane fly? On February 28, 2012, former college quarterback Joe Ayoob set the world record for the longest paper airplane flight. He threw a paper airplane the entire length of a warehouse, setting the record at 226 feet, 10 inches. That broke the old record by 19 feet, 6 inches!
(12 votes, avg. 4.75 out of 5) 
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No!
I was wrong. Today’s wonder of the day is not about birds that can fly or bugs that can fly. However, I loved today’s wonder! 
I think tomorrow’s wonder of the day is about Once upon a time stories.
TJ
Happy Wednesday, TJ! We really liked your guess from yesterday (WONDERing about birds and bugs is AWESOME), but we think paper airplanes are SUPER FUN to WONDER about, too! Thanks so much for being the very first Wonder Friend to visit today’s Wonder and leave us a comment…YOU ROCK!
What a coincidence! I’m making origami!
Is tomorrow about fairy tales?
That really IS a cool coincidence, Logan! We like it when WONDERful things like that happen! We’re not sure what tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day® will be about, but we’re super excited to find out! Thanks for hanging out in Wonderopolis with us today!
I was wrong about the wonder, but I liked this one a lot! I have built a lot of paper airplanes before and they are a lot of fun. I think tomorrow’s wonder will be about a fairy tale.
Thanks for sharing your personal experience with making paper airplanes, LKvolleyballGirl! They sure are fun to create and send into flight, aren’t they? We really like your guess for tomorrow’s Wonder, too!
Good morning,
We had so much fun reading and learning about paper airplanes this morning. We liked the video about the world record. Wow, did Joe ever throw that plane far! Which design did he use? We are going to have a paper airplane making day on Monday and see how far ours go. We will let you know. We like the links to the instructions. They look pretty easy to follow. Thanks,
Also, we think tomorrow’s wonder might be about Fairy Tales and are they really non-fiction or fiction.
Hi there, Mrs. G and your WONDERful class! We really enjoy hearing what you guys think about each Wonder of the Day® after you explore it together! We can’t wait to hear how your paper airplane making day turns out! We did some extra WONDERing about the record-breaking paper airplane and found that it started out as one design, but through trial and error, it ended up being another! You can read all about that in an interview with the designer of that airplane, John Collins, here: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/aviation/diy-flying/the-secrets-of-the-world-record-setting-paper-plane-7013184.
Happy WONDERing!
I think tomorrow’s wonder is about fairy tales.
Thanks for letting us know what you think tomorrow’s Wonder will be about, Wonder Girl! We like that guess a lot! Have you ever visited past Wonder of the Day® #21 – What Fairy Tale Ending Would You Change? It’s AWESOME! Here is a link that will take you right to it: http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/fractured-fairy-tales/.
Paper airplanes are really cool. My students love to make them and fly them in class.
Hello, Shelly! Thanks for sharing your comment with us today! We hope you and your WONDERful students enjoyed learning more about paper airplanes…we know we sure did!
This is really cool!! My summer school kids and I are going to have a contest on the last day of summer school to see who can make the a paper airplane to fly the farthest. We like the examples of airplanes to make, we are going to try making one of those.
Today we are writing stories about super hero platypus’ and illustrating them on the app Story kit on our ipads. It’s really fun!
It sounds like you guys are having some WONDERful fun today, Alison and class! That makes us SUPER happy to hear! We think it ROCKS that you guys are writing your own platypus super hero stories and illustrating them, too! Let us know how your paper plane contest goes…good luck to all our Wonder Friend competitors!
I really like the wonder of today. Tomorrow I think the wonder is about fairy tale stories.
Thanks so much for letting us know you liked exploring today’s Wonder, Anna! We had fun learning all about paper airplanes and we’re glad you did, too! You are an AMAZING Wonder Friend!
That’s cool.
Hi there, pandakin24! Thanks for letting us know you thought today’s Wonder was cool! We think YOU are COOL for leaving us a WONDERful comment!
Hey guys, I almost got it right. I said airplane but it was a paper airplane, and guys can you tell me which state or country you live near please. The video was cool. I think tomorrow’s wonder will be about fairy tales.
That’s AWESOME, Dominic! We think you were SUPER, SUPER close! There are LOTS of people who create and share here in Wonderopolis! We like to say we’re all residents of Wonderopolis…even YOU, your classmates and Mrs. Thiessen!
Hi wonderoplis, I love this website!!! I think tommorow’s wonder will be about Cinderella, or this show called once upon a time!
We’re so excited to hear that you love learning in Wonderopolis, Julia! It’s a LOT of fun to WONDER, isn’t it? Thanks for sharing your guess for tomorrow’s Wonder…it’s GREAT!
This wonder was fun. I got it wrong, but it was fun. I remember doing a science fair project on which type of material is best to make a plane out of. I make the best paper airplanes. Thanks so much again!!
We think it’s really cool that you did a science project about which type of material is the best for making paper airplanes, boyWONDER! We have enjoyed your comments this summer and hope you will continue to visit Wonderopolis and learn some interesting new things with us each day!
I am also from Mrs. G’s class. It’s amazing how the guy in the video threw the paper airplane 226 feet and 10 centimeters. How did he do it? It is amazing. I wonder how he made it. It is so cool.
We know from doing some extra WONDERing about the airplane in the video, that both the airplane maker and the airplane thrower practiced and tried their best, Connor! We thought it was WONDERful to see the excitement on both men’s faces when they broke the world record!
I was right it’s about paper planes!
Way to go, Kellie! That’s some AWESOME Wonder guessing! Thank you for hanging out in Wonderopolis with us today!
I, too can make 2 cool, fast, and probably easy paper airplanes. The first 1 is an original airplane, the 2 is a crazy plane.
Hi there, Carlos! Those planes sound really AMAZING! We can only imagine how that crazy plane flies! We be it’s fun to watch! Thanks for being such a COOL Wonder Friend…we appreciate your SUPER comments!
I like today’s wonder.
I think tomorrow’s wonder is who started fairy tales.
Thanks for sharing that you liked this Wonder of the Day®, Julia…we think that’s GREAT! We like your guess for the next Wonder, too! Thank you for visiting Wonderopolis today and for being a SUPER WONDER FRIEND!
Hi, my class and I think today’s wonder is awesome can’t wait until tomorrows!!
We think your class is AWESOME, WONDERCLASS7! Thanks for leaving us a comment to let us know you guys enjoyed exploring this Wonder of the Day® together! Have a GREAT day!
cool!:)
Hi, “Wonder!” We hope you are having a WONDERful week so far! Thank you visiting today’s Wonder…it was FUN to learn all about paper airplanes and see the world record plane in flight, wasn’t it?
I love my daddy.
We think that’s really great, TJ! Thank you for sharing your comment with us today!
Hi, I really liked the wonder of the day today and me and my school class made the arrow and they went really far…so thanks for the idea to make the paper airplanes..and the paper airplanes the arrow went really far if it was small, and we made one that was big and it didn’t go far…but the small one went the farthest.
Thanks so much for letting us know how your paper airplane throwing went, Jordan! It makes us super happy to hear that you and your classmates had fun trying that after you WONDERed about planes and explored this Wonder of the Day® together! You guys ROCK!
Good morning, Wonderopolis!
We are excited to be making our own paper airplanes this afternoon and testing out their flight. We wonder how far they will soar? We can’t wait to share some pictures with you!
Have a WONDERful Wednesday!
Mrs. Phillips’ Fabulous 2nd Grade Class
Good afternoon, Wonder Friends in Mrs. Phillips’ Fabulous 2nd grade class!
We think your airplane project sounds like a SUPER experiment! We hope you will share how far your planes soar! Do you have any hypotheses, or are you going to test and record your flight patterns? 