When I was kid, I used to make planes. Definitely, it was not toy planes, rather it was paper planes. I think, most of the kids do that at the child age. But like me, I think, no kids have ever thought that, someone will make such big paper airplane one day which will fly in the sky like real planes. This plane is being called the world’s largest paper airplane till now in the history of the world. It flew in the skies over the Sonora desert in Arizona on March 21, 2012.
Arturo Valdenegro, a 12 year old Tucson resident won the Pima Air & Space Museum‘s paper airplane distance contest this year in January. He designed a paper plane and folded his plane for the competition again. This competition was sponsored by Pima Air & Space Museum.
Arturo’s design was adopted and constructed by Art Thompson. Art Thompson is one of the designers of the B-2 stealth bomber.
The name of the giant paper airplane is ‘Arturo’s Desert Eagle.’ It is 45 feet long with a 24 foot wingspan and weighs 800 pounds. The paper plane is made of layers of falcon board, a kind of corrugated cardboard. It is a part of The Great Paper Airplane Project. The purpose of making such giant paper plane is to generate interest in aviation and engineering among young people. There was an helicopter named Sikorsky S58T waiting for the complete Arturo’s Desert Eagle. This helicopter helped Arturo’s Desert Eagle to reach 2,703 feet up from the ground. The paper airplane was able to reach speeds of up to 100 mph. After roaming around for 7-10 seconds it crash landed. Check out the video below.
Source : The Great Paper Airplane Project
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