The sheet in your printer is a very good airplane material. It's flat, it creases cleanly, and it's the same every time, which matters more than any special property. Most folding problems blamed on paper are really fold problems, and ordinary paper lets you find them.
Letter and A4 are not the same plane
US Letter is 8.5 × 11 inches (216 × 279 mm). A4 is 210 × 297 mm. A4 is a little narrower and noticeably longer, so the same recipe of folds gives a slightly different plane: the nose angle, the body length and the wing outline all shift.
Neither size is better. What matters is that measurements match your sheet. Every plane guide on this site has a Letter/A4 switch, and each set of measurements comes from the app's catalog for that size, so you never have to convert inches in your head. Legal paper (8.5 × 14 inches) is much longer and isn't covered by these guides.
What gsm actually tells you
"gsm" means grams per square metre. It's a weight per area: an A4 sheet of 80 gsm paper weighs about 5 grams. In North America the same paper is sold by "pound" rating: 20 lb bond is about 75 gsm, 24 lb about 90 gsm.
Weight is not stiffness. Two papers of the same gsm can feel very different; a coated or glossy sheet is often floppier and slipperier than plain copy paper. And weight is not distance: a heavier plane of the same shape needs more speed to fly, so it may go farther with a strong throw and less far with a gentle one.
| Paper | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Printer paper, 75–90 gsm | Learning any design; crisp, repeatable folds | Nothing much. Keep it flat and dry |
| Notebook paper | Quick planes, writing notes on the body | Torn punch-hole edges; thin sheets sag at the wingtips |
| Origami paper (square) | Colourful small models | Wrong shape: these recipes need a rectangle |
| Construction paper | Visible, easy to tell apart | Soft, fibrous folds; thick locks won't close |
| Cardstock | Stiff wings on simple darts | Heavy; multi-layer noses get bulky and won't flatten |
Thick noses need thin paper
Some designs pile many layers at the front. A Condor rolls the top edge three times; a Needle folds the edges in three times; the tucked-nose planes like the Pebble push a point back inside the body. On thick paper those layers won't lie flat, the body won't close, and the plane ends up lopsided. If a guide's nose steps fight you, try a thinner sheet before blaming your folding.
Grain, humidity and tired paper
Paper bends more easily in one direction, along its grain. Gently curve a spare sheet the long way and then the short way, without creasing, and you'll feel the difference. You don't need to plan around it; just keep the sheet the same way up when comparing planes.
Damp paper goes limp and creases hold poorly. So does paper that has hit a wall twenty times. When a plane that used to fly well starts misbehaving, check for a crumpled nose or softened wing before changing its trim. Often the best fix is a fresh sheet.
Compare two papers fairly
- Pick one design you can fold well, and one sheet size.
- Fold two planes from two papers with the same care. No clips or tape.
- Write A and B on the body, away from the wings.
- Alternate: A, B, A, B… five throws each, same place, same release.
- Record each landing distance and anything notable: a dive, a stall, damage.
- Compare the middle (median) throw of each, not the single best one.
Your result describes that design with those two papers and your throw. It's still useful, just not a universal ranking. The fair flight test guide explains the scoring in more detail.
Keep going
- 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.
- 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.
Something unclear or wrong? Send a correction. How we write and check guides.