A field guide to paper airplanes
Fold a paper airplane.
Find out why it flew that way.
Step-by-step diagrams for 44 paper airplanes, drawn by the same fold engine that runs our free 3D app, and plain advice for the dives, stalls and turns that happen next.
New here? Start with these three steps
- 1
Fold the Dart
Ten steps, and every fold has a twin on the other side. Mismatches are easy to spot.
Dart guide → - 2
Watch the whole flight
Dives, stalls and turns need different fixes, so notice what the plane did before it landed.
Read a flight path → - 3
Change one thing
Make one small bend, then throw three times the same way to see whether it helped.
Run a fair test →
From the hangar
Groupings follow the app's own filters. They describe what each design is for, not measured results.
Good first folds
Ten or eleven steps, nothing tricky. Start here.
Built to glide
Broad wings, locks and winglets for smooth, slow flights.
Stunt setups
Same bodies, deliberate back-edge bends: loops, curves and spirals.
Clever folds
Tucked noses, reversed tail fins and drooped tips.
The workshop
Troubleshooting, paper, choosing a design, fair tests and the physics of a glide.
- Flight workshopWhy your paper airplane dives, stalls, or turnsName the flight pattern first, then make the one small change that matches it. A field guide to dives, stalls, turns and rolls.
- Before you foldChoosing paper for a paper airplanePrinter paper is the right place to start. When to switch, what gsm means, why Letter and A4 give different planes, and how to compare two papers fairly.
- Choose a designDart or glider: which paper airplane should you make?Pick a plane by what you want it to do and where you will throw it. How darts and gliders differ, with suggestions from all 44 designs.
- Try an experimentHow to run a fair paper airplane flight testA tape measure, a starting line and ten throws: how to find out whether a change really helped, with a printable log and a worked scoring example.
- Understand flightHow a paper airplane flies without an engineLift, drag, weight and balance in plain language, and how each one shows up in the flights you actually see.
The 3D app
See every fold in 3D.
Pick any plane, rotate it, and replay a fold until the layers make sense. Then throw it in a flight simulator and try trims with the Flight Doctor. It runs in the browser, free.
Model and paper are different
The simulator has no wrinkles, no loose layers and the same release every time. Use it to spot a pattern, then test on real paper. We never present a simulated distance as a real one.