Curated Video
World Record Paper Plane Flight: Tips and Tricks for Maximum Distance
Joe has designed a paper airplane that flies farther than any other. He provides some tips to help with aerodynamic design. Use to prompt discussion about design for flight.
WIRED
The Ultimate Paper Airplane | WIRED
Over the last decade, designer Luca Iaconi-Stewart has been building an incredibly detailed model of a Boeing 777, right down to the tiny seats and moving landing gear, using only paper folders and glue. Check out Luca's YouTube channel:...
Curated Video
How to Make a Plastic Bottle Airplane
New ReviewThis tutorial will teach you how to make a toy plane using a plastic bottle. It’s a fun and easy way to recycle and reuse plastic bottles. You get to have a lot of creative freedom in designing your own aeroplane.
Curated Video
Airplane Catapult: Q&A with Nate | Design Squad
How does an airplane lift off the ground? Learn how planes use lift and thrust to fly, then make your own paper airplane catapult. For more videos, activities and games visit pbskids.org/designsquad
Curated Video
How airplane legroom got so tight
And why it isn’t regulated — yet. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO When you’re flying, there’s one thing you want to be above all else — comfortable. (Well, besides safe, of...
TED Talks
TED: A comic sendup of TED2006 | Tom Rielly
Satirist Tom Rielly delivers a wicked parody of the 2006 TED conference, taking down the $100 laptop, the plight of the polar bear, and people who mention, one too many times, that they work at Harvard. Watch for a special moment between...
Curated OER
Flight Dreams - Folding into Flight
Combine measurement, following directions, physics, and art with one fun activity. Learners read a set of instruction to create three different kinds of paper airplanes. They measure, fold, and fly the planes, and record data and answer...
Teach Engineering
Airplane Tails and Wings: Are You in Control?
Keep everything under control. The instructional activity, the 16th segment in a 22-part unit, provides a more detailed look at the parts of a plane, specifically the control surfaces. Pupils learn about the construction of the wings and...
Teach Engineering
Take Off with Paper Airplanes
Let's go fly a kite ... oops, a paper airplane! The 13th segment in an aviation unit of 22 relates the parts of an airplane to paper airplanes. Pupils learn the functions of the control surfaces of a plane to really make their knowledge...
Curated OER
Paper Airplane Activity
Ninth graders select and build one of five different paper airplane designs and test them for distance and for time aloft. Part of this activity is designed to explore NASA developed software, FoilSim, with respect to the lift of an...
Curated OER
Design a Paper Airplane
Students study examples of paper airplanes and then create their own paper airplane models.
Kenan Fellows
Weight and Balance of an Airplane
A career in aeronautics might be calling your class members. Building from the previous two lessons in the series, learners continue analyzing the mathematics of aeronautics. Groups create a paper airplane using paperclips for balance....
Curated OER
Aerospace/Aeronautical Engineering: Build a Paper Airplane
Students brainstorm what it is like to fly on an airplane and discuss the parts of a plane. Students construct a paper plane of their own, decorate it, have a competition, and discuss the importance of each part of a plane and the role...
Curated OER
Build a Paper Plane
Students study the history of the paper plane. For this design lesson students create several types of paper planes and determine if there is a difference in mean flight distances.
Curated OER
Wright Again: 100 Years of Flight
Aspiring aeronautical engineers demonstrate different forces as they construct and test paper airplanes. This lesson plan links you to a website that models the most effective paper airplane design, an animation describing the forces...
Curated OER
Paper Airplanes & Scientific Methods
Seventh graders examine how to define scientific inquiry and the scientific method. In this paper airplane instructional activity students research airplanes, take notes then create an airplane trial.
Curated OER
FLIGHT FAIR
Students conduct their personal investigations into paper airplane flight. Cooperative teams are formed, with students choosing the paper airplane design that they are most interested in building.
MinutePhysics
How Do Airplanes Fly?
Up, up, and away! Physics scholars learn the secrets to defying gravity through engineering. The video describes the forces acting on various parts of the plane and the designs that minimize these forces or increase opposing forces. The...
Curated OER
Problems and Solutions in Aircraft Design
Young scholars watch demonstrations of paper folded designs that do and do not fly and discuss their observations. They identify problems that they, the Wright Brothers, or NASA scientists face when designing an aircraft, and identify...
Curated OER
Symmetry in Paper Airplanes
Students explore symmetry. In this geometry and scientific inquiry lesson, students design paper airplanes with middle line symmetry, as well as right, obtuse, and acute angles. Students measure the plane's angles using a protractor,...
Curated OER
Paper Airplane Contest
Students research principles of flight. They design their own paper airplanes and make predictions about the performance of different designs. Students keep track of their findings in an electronic journal.
Curated OER
Paper Airplane Science
Fifth graders recognize the need to follow the scientific method carefully and be aware of variables in experiments. In this airplane lesson, 5th graders design and test an airplane, and complete a data sheet. Students retest five times...
Curated OER
The Great Paper Airplane Factory
Students investigate the economics of starting a business in this series of lessons. They role play parts of a business organization that sells paper airplanes making decisions based on calculations to make the most profitable organization.
NASA
The X-1 Paper Glider Kit
After reading an interesting account of how the X-1 aircraft was designed, built, and utilized, young engineers try their hand at constructing a paper glider version of the airplane. They cut out the plane out of a nicely designed...