The Shape of Planes to Come
There’s a turf war in my brain about what shape the next duration world record plane will be. Part of my brain believes that Takuo Toda has it right, but I can’t help thinking Ken Blackburn’s rectangular design may prevail. The rectangle should have better lift to drag. That elliptical lift pattern should be the correct solution for time aloft. The delta shape seems to hold the plane together better, with less throwing force lost to moving wings. Ken’s plane deforms a lot on
One for the books...
Did people make paper airplanes before real planes? Yes and no. They were called paper darts before airplanes became part of our vocabulary. So, in a way, paper airplanes only happened after the Wright Brothers. However, there are books dating back to 1864 (that’s right—civil war era) that contain instructions for paper darts. At least 40 years before the invention of powered, controllable, human aviation, Americans were throwing paper darts around. Paper darts may date much
In The Weeds
This is not about paper airplanes. It's about my second great hobby, windsurfing. Sometimes great big rationalizations creep up on you. Rationalizing is knowing something you’re doing is probably wrong, but you make up “logical” reasons or “rationales” for continuing to do the thing; mainly because you like doing that thing. Guys with speed boats know they pollute the air and water, but they work hard and deserve some play time; so, you know, what one person does can’t kill
