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This is a bird … This is a plane … This is a paper plane!
World record for The farthest flight on a paper plane He was broken by three aerospace engineers with a paper aircraft, which flew a total of 289 feet 9 inches (88 meters), almost the length of the American football field.
They defeated the previous record of 252 feet 7 inches (77 meters), reached in April 2022 Trio in South KoreaThe field before that the record has not been broken for more than ten years.
“It really puts things on the map, and this is a really proud moment for family and friends,” said Dillon Ruble, engineer of the Boeing system, and now the owner of a paper record, In the release. “This is a good connection with the aerospace industry and thinking and creating prototypes.”
The ruble worked with Garrett Jensen, engineer -Silov and engineer -Aeroskosmic engineer Nathaniel Erickson. The trio are recent graduates who studied aerospace engineering and engineering at the University of Science and Missouri technology.
This feat required months of effort, since the team spent almost 500 hours of studying origami and aerodynamics to create and test several prototypes. The engineers checked their final design for the test on December 2, 2022 in Krown -Pontent, Indiana, where the record was reached on the third throw of the ruble.
“We hope that this record will take place for quite some time – 290 feet (88 meters) is unrealistic,” Jensen said in the release. “This is from 14 to 15 feet (from 4.2 to 4.6 meters) in the farthest throws that we did when we did. It took a lot of planning and a lot of skills to defeat the previous record. ”
The team decided that their best chance to win the world record would be with the design of the aircraft, which is focused on speed and minimized resistance so that the aircraft can fly at a long distance in a short time.
Collection of inspiration from various Hypersonic aircraftvehicles that can fly faster than five times higher than the sound speed (Mach 5), in particular NASA X-43AThe team came up with the design of a winning paper aircraft – later called “Mach 5.”
“Full-scale and paper aircraft have huge differences in their complexity, but both work on the same fundamental principles,” the ruble said by e-mail. “Some of the same design methodologies can be applied to both. One of these methods was our process of designing samples and errors. For example, we theorize about a fold that we could change on our plane, fold, quit and compare the distance with previous iterations to determine whether the change was useful. ”
To find the best equipment when it came to throwing a paper aircraft, the team launched various simulations and analyzed the slow videos with their previous throws.
“We found that the optimal angle is approximately 40 degrees from the ground. As soon as you aim at the fact that you will aim at the most strongly. This gives us the best distance, ”Jensen said in a statement. “It took simulation to find out. I did not think that we could get useful data from modeling on a paper plane. It turns out we could. ”
Even until the newspaper, which the team decided that the A4 (a little longer than typical paper the size of the letter) was the best for manipulating and folding into a winning plane. With this carefully thought -out choice of design and thorough attention to numerous rules and the leading principles set forth by the Guinness World Record team, these three were to break the record.
On its record flight of distance, the plane was in the air for about six seconds. Guinness Paper aircraft for flight duration Currently 29.2 seconds.
“The design goals for the airtime record were very different from the low-content version, which we created for the longest record,” the ruble said by e-mail. “An increase in wingspan and a decrease in the ratio of the parties will be the first steps in creating this type of plane.”
In addition to a paper aircraft, the ruble added that this tiring method of testing on the opposite and detachments served as evidence of the importance of strict prototyping in the real world.
The Ruble and Jensen began their career in the field of engineering career of paper aircraft, participating in events on paper aircraft held in Boeing. The Ruble said that he liked to revive paper and the hard work that he had to bring to find ways to improve his designs. Both were also fans of origami as children.
A record team hopes that their achievements will inspire other young and novice aerospace industry engineers to pursue their dreams.
For those who want to create their own record design of a paper aircraft, this feat is not impossible, but can take some time (and skill).
“Mach 5 flies best at a high relative speed, but to achieve this condition the aircraft should be launched in a certain way,” said the ruble by e -mail. “This technique, in addition to the complexity of the aircraft, means that only the most experienced lovers of paper aircraft will be successful with the design.
“However, starting with public designs, anyone can hone their skills to throw paper planes further and above all their friends,” he added.
