Yikes! You are surfing a paper airplane on an invisible wave of air that you create with a piece of cardboard. With practice you learn how to levitate the origami hang glider using only your hands to create the wave.
Note: I think foam gliders are much better for beginners: easier to adjust, lighter weight so you have more time to react, not affected by high humidity (makes paper limp). Check out foam walkalong gliders.
New Twist: an origami expert in Taiwan, who goes by the moniker "Ponder", has modified the Origami Hang Glider design. My friend Phil Rossoni in Boston made it and thinks it's an improvement over the original. As Phil wrote, " I think the new design by Ponder does bring some origami expertise to the old hang glider design. I think the transition from mountain to valley folds couples the elevon to the airfoil folds such that if either flexes the other is strengthened. So if the glider stresses it would fly slower as the flexing in the airfoil would translate into an increase in the elevon angle and slow the glider down." You can see the links to Ponder's pages, some pictures and YouTube flights Phil did with the design, here. And check out the rest of Phil's site and his book about walkalong gliders.
If you would rather start paper walkalong gliding with an easier to build project, try the tumblewing instead. (Foam walkalong gliding is much easier)
Part1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
It is not clear in the video, but the center of gravity marks are only starting points. You can add tape if it stalls or cut off tape if it dives.
Part 5
How Origami Hang Glider Flies
Here is a video that shows how our origami hand glider flies using the same principle as big hang gliders.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
Astonishing! You are flying a piece of paper, surfing it on a wave of air created with cardboard. There are many branches of walkalong gliding, but the Big Mouth Tumblewing is the easiest way to start. You only need phone book paper or newspaper. This video starts with a introduction, then instructions for making and flying tumblewings.
Here are some other instructional videos about making the classic, original tumblewings. This one is by John Collins (The Paper Airplane Guy and tumbling wing inventor).
Once you master making and flying tumblewings, the next logical step is foam gliders.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
I have a new spinning paper glider design (and video) that is better than previous designs. It is just 3 folds on a strip of newspaper (“phone book paper” is not needed, unlike previous designs). The 20 minute video is unlisted while people test it and send feedback to improve the final, public version—and I would like more feedback. I need the fresh perspectives of people who are new to spinning paper gliders and are using the video as their only instruction. If you would like to participate, email me and tell me you’ll make the glider and provide some feedback, and I’ll send the YouTube link. It doesn’t have to be long—could be one short sentence. Of course, if you are able to go into more detail, how it might be improved, what could be presented more clearly, pacing etc. of course I appreciate that.
These are very difficult to get right. Unlike the spinning gliders, Origami Hang Glider is an advanced project.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
Astonishing! You are flying a piece of paper, surfing it on a wave of air created with cardboard.
Next to the dihedral magnus effect glider, the Big Mouth Tumblewing is the easiest way to start flying a walkalong glider. You only need phone book paper or newspaper. The pattern here. This video starts with a introduction, then instructions for making and flying tumblewings.
"Flying Fish" or spinning blimps are simple and quick to make, and you can fly them as walkalong gliders.
I'd like to know how this project goes for you. I'm happy to answer questions about it. Feedback from you is an important way for me to know what works and what needs clarification.
The embedded video above is about making and flying a simple kind of glider, or sending it hight up in helicopters.
Below is the transcript of the narration, plus some additional details. The numbers are time markers that tell you where to go in the video to see it. If you have a question, you can leave a message in the comments section at the bottom of this page or contact me about it and I’ll try to answer it on this page.
Although I have tried to be very forthright about saying that these paper gliders are harder to fly as walkalong gliders than thin foam gliders, I still think it's a good idea to start with paper gliders. It might be a struggle with lots of frustration, but it's a worthwhile struggle nevertheless. I've observed that groups that start with paper gliders do very well when they move to foam gliders. Maybe it's because newbies tend to crush gliders with their careless or nervous hands. But it's so fast and easy--and essentially free--to make new paper gliders as needed. Whatever the reason, it's a good idea to try flying paper gliders first; the effort won't be wasted!
0:00 Hi I’m Slater aka sciencetoymaker. These strips of paper tucked away in the helicopter: do they look like gliders? Let’s try them out in the Troposphere! When you become fascinated by things that fly, then you become aware that we live at the bottom of an ocean of air called the Troposphere. Here’s a good page about that.
And it’s even possible to fly this strange glider inside on a deflected wave of air.
An example of dihedral
0:35 The name, Dihedral Magnus Effect glider, is long, but it’s quick and easy to build. But first, dihedral is the slight upward bend of airplane wings for better flight stability. Without dihedral, the glider slips sideways. Then the Magnus effect is what makes spinning soccer balls curve as if by magic. Physics Girl did a stellar job of explaining the Magnus Effect in this video.
Even when the glider is traveling so slowly that it seems like it ought to stall and dive out of the air, the Magnus Effect keeps giving it… almost magical lift.
1:10 And when I fly the Dihedral Magnus Effect glider like this, it’s called walkalong gliding. The upwardly deflected air lifts the glider up as much as gravity pulls it down—similar to the way hang gliders can stay in updrafts for hours, not just glide.
I don’t want to oversell these. Although Magnus gliders are easy to make and launch in a helicopter, the trade off is that they are not very efficient; and paper is actually quite heavy. So they’re difficult to launch and fly. Fixed-wing walkalong gliders made of 0.7 millimeter foam are easier to fly. But hey, paper’s here and free, so let’s make a glider now.
1:57 To start you’ll need some telephone book paper. Newspaper is a little heavier still, but newspaper can be ok too. Now here’s something interesting: all machine-made paper has a grain, so paper is much stronger one way than the other. I’ve cut two rectangles out of one phone book page; identical except that one is parallel to the text while the other one is long perpendicular to text. When you cantilever them off an edge, this one is clearly more rigid so we’ll cut strips parallel to the text. But test your assumptions! This small newspaper is strong parallel to the text; but this large newspaper is the opposite!
2:43 The strips should be about 25 mm wide by 155 mm long (1 inch by 6 inches). To get the dihedral, you fold gently in half. Folding in half before cutting means less cutting. It also insures symmetrical halves, so it will glide better. You can save a lot at a time by folding and cutting lots of gliders at once.
3:11 You might be able to launch the glider now, but another fold will make it stronger. Origami people say that this is a valley fold. Make a gentle mountain fold perpendicular to the first fold, then mostly unbend it. That hint of a fold makes it less floppy and creates a crude airfoil that helps the glide a little.
If you have too much dihedral angle, then it will not fly. Just a little.
3:39 If you are sending gliders up as a payload in a helicopter, slide 3 or 4 under the rubber band at the bottom. The rubber band ejects them as it unwinds. See this link to learn more about how to launch gliders.
4:01 For walkalong gliding, you need dead-calm air. That usually means inside, away from air vents. I’ve been in many science museums where it was all but impossible to fly because of air turbulence. However, usually I was able to find a hallway or something where the air was still enough to fly.
If you want to try walkalong gliding, your first hurdle is launching. Your glider should glide away from you, not toward you. Hold the glider from the back like this. There is only a slight dihedral. Give a short push—really just a tiny flick of the wrist--and let go. You can also try launching like this. Practice launches and when 2 out of 3 glide straight, then you’re ready to fly. Experiment with dihedral angle.
4:38 The bigger your board is, the better. The top of a pizza box works well. Hold the board almost vertical. It has slant a lot to deflect air upward. Launch high. Keep the glider level with the top of the board. Keep the board so close to the glider that it almost blows over the top.
5:05 To gain altitude, make the top of the board go so close that the glider goes over the top. Notice how it went higher just before going over. So this time, raise the board so the glider can’t go over; it gains altitude instead. Try pulses of getting closer to see where the sweet spot is.
5:35 You turn by pushing one side of the board closer to one side of the glider. You cannot make sharp turns with this glider and fast moves don’t work. Keep your board smooth and steady.
5:50 I learned to fly with a similar Magnus glider and I struggled for weeks before getting it. It takes even longer for the pioneers who charge ahead without anyone to show you how to fly. Flying the glider is like riding a bike: it takes time and practice to learn, then gets easier.
6:23 Let’s tip our hats to John Collins, AKA the Paper Airplane Guy, for inventing the first Magnus Effect paper glider, which he calls the Tumbling Wing.
Dihedral Magnus Effect gliders made from thin slices of foam are not affected by humidity; and they are so light that they fly slowly. In fact, I can fly them with just my hands deflecting the air. You can have a single piece of North American standard foam from sciencetoymaker.org, cut it in half and sliced into 13mm or ½ inch strips. They’re very easy to make but are still tricky to launch. Foam fixed-wing gliders are easier to launch but harder to make. Life is full of tradeoffs.
7:09 Besides being delicate—you need to handle them very gently--the foam gliders are even more sensitive to how much dihedral you have. If the glider seems to slide or it keeps tipping over like this, then you need more dihedral. If the glider is clunky or won’t glide at all, then less dihedral. There’s not much difference between too much and not enough, so you’ll have to experiment
