Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/26/desert_eagle/
Giant paper plane thunders across Arizona sky
45ft beast nudges 100mph
Posted in SPB, 26th March 2012 09:18 GMT
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An Arizona aircraft museum reckons it has taken the record for the launch of the biggest ever paper plane: a 45ft (13.7m) long monster which glided to Earth last week from a height of 2,703ft (824m).
Pima Air & Space Museum's [1] hefty 800lb (363kg) Arturo's Desert Eagle [2] needed a helicopter to haul its 24ft (7.3m) wingspan off the ground, but video of the release indicates it really did fly at up to 98mph (158km/h), even if footage of what we imagine was a lively landing isn't yet available.
Watch Video [3]
The aircraft was named in honour of Tucson lad Arturo Valderamo, 12, (pictured below with the Desert Eagle), who won a competition organised by the museum, challenging six-to-14-year-olds to fold and fly a paper plane as far as possible.
Pima Air & Space Museum executive director Yvonne Morris said of the historic launch: "The arresting visual of the paper airplane in flight rekindled the childhood creativity in all of us." ®
Bootnote
Arturo's Desert Eagle was constructed from "paper-based graphic board" Falconboard [4], which is made up of "an engineered paper core and water-based adhesives". Disappointingly, the aircraft's structure appears to contain no paper straws [5] whatsoever.