National Paper Airplane Day
Make a paper airplane on #NationalAirplaneDay
26 May is National Paper Airplane Day, a day to celebrate this humble bit of aeronautics and remind ourselves of the role it played in our youth – and can still play today.
Every day, hundreds of people demonstrate that Wilbur and Orville Wright’s feat of creating the first airplane was not that impressive – all it takes is a simple piece of paper, a few clever folds and you can create an airplane of your own!
The paper plane might not be exactly the same as the amazing machine created by the Wright brothers, or compare well with the impressive machines we see today, but the fundamental concepts may have been developed in this humble medium. So, just how old is the art of the paper plane? It seems that the paper plane, which is an example of the Japanese art of origami, followed on the heels of the creation of paper in 500 BCE.
While the origin of the first paper plane is uncertain, it is known that for the next thousand years they were the art form of man-made aircraft. Even Da Vinci was inspired, and suggested that his many models and sketches proposed for manned aircraft be made out of parchment. The Wright Brothers were known to have studied paper aircraft extensively in their quest to develop that first amazing flying machine.
So while we may have thought of them as little more than simple toys and ways to annoy our teachers, they’ve actually played a vital role in one of the most important inventions in the transportation industry, the plane. You could even say that ultimately, paper planes put us on the moon.
Celebrating National Paper Airplane Day is simple and fun – just pick up a piece of paper, fold it into your favourite airplane shape and give it a toss! If you are looking for something more challenging, search the internet or books and find a different shape to fold. Engage your friends and family, create a few paper planes and see who created the best one!
Use #NationalPaperAirplaneDay to post on social media.
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