Here at Popular Mechanics, our fascination with paper airplanes runs deep. We decided to have fun its fascinating history—in addition to its surprising contribution to the sphere of aerodynamics and engineering—in our July/August issue.
Graphic designer, writer, and paper plane fanatic Kyle Boyer designed our cover plane, called the Alpha Lock. It’s specially crafted to fly far, fast, and straight, and it has an interior pocket that locks the wings in place to make sure a stable flight.
We’ve included step-by-step instructions below on the best way to fold the plane, but you too can follow along as Kyle folds an Alpha Lock paper plane within the video below.
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ALPHA LOCK INSTRUCTIONS
PRO TIP Be certain each fold is as crisp as possible.
Step 1
Remove the duvet from the magazine by cutting along the dotted line. Start by flipping the duvet the wrong way up.Step 2
Fold the sheet in half, lengthwise. (The front of the duvet ought to be on the inside the fold.)
Step 3
Open the sheet up, flip it over, and fold the highest edge down along the horizontal black line near the middle of the sheet.
Step 4
Open the sheet again and fold the highest edge to the crease you simply formed in Step 3.
Step 5
Open the sheet up over again and fold the highest edge to the crease you created in Step 4.
Step 6
Next, fold the highest portion of the sheet down along the primary horizontal crease you made.
Step 7
Fold each top corners down and in toward the middle of the sheet. This could form a triangular shape.
Step 8
Open those triangular flaps back up.
Step 9
On both sides, fold the outer corner of the sheet into the creases you simply made in Step 8, leaving a small gap between each edge and its respective crease.
Step 10
Now fold each of the plane’s top corners down and in toward the middle, along the crease you made in Step 8. This could form a small pocket on the plane’s center.
Step 11
Spin the plane so it’s pointed toward you. Next, pull the left side of the inside pocket toward the front of the plane and crease it along the sting of the left flap. Repeat this step on the best side.
Step 12
Fold the plane in half. (The inside pocket will swing forward.)
Step 13
Fold the primary wing along the solid line. (Be certain the highest fringe of the wing aligns with the joint created by the inside pocket.)
Step 14
Flip your plane over and repeat this step for the opposite wing. Each wings should now be locked in place. Your plane is able to fly!
NEED TO MAKE AN ADJUSTMENT?
Every paper plane has adjustable control surfaces that may, if minutely tweaked, affect how easily it flies.
Tweaking the rudder in your plane—by folding it barely to the left or right—will affect the yaw. Crucial control surfaces on our plane are the back edges of the wings, or elevons. When you find that your plane pitches down toward the bottom, fold the elevons up barely, to extend lift. In case your plane starts to roll, you may adjust the elevons to stabilize it. If it rolls to the left, bend the best elevon up barely, and vice versa.
Bending the wings upward barely, so that they are at a dihedral angle, can even increase the soundness of your plane. This does increase drag, so you might lose a little bit of lift.
Yaw refers back to the rotation of the plane across the vertical axis.
Pitch refers back to the rotation of the plane around a side-to-side axis.
Roll refers back to the rotation of the plane across the front-to-back axis.