Laminated Paper Airplane: G-4
Here are plans for a laminated paper airplane: the G-4 glider.
If you haven’t built one of these before, I would suggest that you start with the simpler G-1 glider. It has simpler wings which are easier to assemble. Also, that page explains some construction tips that I won’t bother to repeat here. After you’ve build a G-1, the G-4 will be very similar. The main difference is longer wings with small winglets at the end.
You don’t necessarily have to stick to the plans. If you want to experiment, here are some simple modifications you might try:
- Try lowering the angle of the wing tips to see if you get better performance. The plans call for 25 degrees at the wing tips, but I think that might be too aggressive. Try a smaller angle and see if the plane flies farther.
- You can get a plane without any markings on it by printing the plans out on a separate piece of normal paper (not the thick card stock). Then tape the plans to the card stock and cut out the pieces. You’ll end up with clean pieces, with no lines on them, which I find aestheically pleasing.
- If you shrink the plans before you print them, you can make smaller planes. You could try to make larger planes too, but I suspect the paper wouldn’t be strong enough.
Once you’ve built a plane, find a large outdoor area to fly it, because these planes can fly a long way. Even in a decent-sized yard it often goes over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. An empty softball field works well. Check here for tips on tuning and flying your plane.
Download G-4 plans (rev. 2):
December 4th, 2008 at 7:48 pm
Ahh, I’ve been searching for a site like this for a while.
Many years ago I bought a whitewings book and made some amazing planes.
Question: As I recall, I used rubber cement as an adhesive. Is there some reason you don’t?
That’s not a loaded question – it’s been so many years since I made one of these things that I can’t recall the protocol.
December 4th, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Hmm, no particular reason. Somewhere I read something that said to use white glue, so I did.
I think white glue might give a stronger bond for less weight, but I don’t really know. It seems like using rubber cement would be fine. If it doesn’t work out, you can always print it again and use white glue.
April 20th, 2009 at 9:12 pm
how do you camber the wings before or after?
April 28th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
I camber the individual wing pieces before I laminate them together. Then I check the camber before gluing the wings to the body (sometimes it needs a little more bending).
May 1st, 2009 at 1:56 pm
Dear Sir,
Please suggest the Maximum size of paper of Heavy Card Stock for getting the print out of G-1 and G-4 gliders.
Thanks
Kirti
September 29th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
It is not too heavy for the flight?
October 11th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
With the paper I was using, this plane weighed 12 grams when finished. This was from 8.5″x11″ card stock. Unfortunately I can’t find the wrapper for the paper I was using, so I’m not sure what the exact thickness was. It was around the same weight paper as index cards use, perhaps slightly thinner than that.
January 29th, 2010 at 11:06 am
please post the g1 on this page
February 5th, 2010 at 1:19 am
Hi Cole,
The G1 plans are here:
http://zovirl.com/2004/01/15/high-performance-paper-airplanes-g-1/