Zovirl Industries

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):

• PDF format
• Open Office format

It isn’t too hard to fly these laminated paper planes, but here are some tips that can make it work better.

First, look at the plane straight-on from the front, back, and top. Make sure all the pieces are straight and lined up. Bend them gently if they aren’t.

Ok, ready for your first flights. Best to do this on a dry day with no wind. Grip the plane under the wings and throw it straight ahead (not up or down). Ideally it should fly straight ahead in a nice smooth glide.

If it turns left or right look at the plane and try to figure out why. Is one wing warped differently than the other? Is the rudder (the back edge of the vertical part of the tail) straight? If you don’t see anything obvious just bend the rudder a little to the left or right, or bend the trailing edge of one wing down and the other one up.

If the plane pitches up, then drops its nose, then pitches up again, bend the trailing edge of the horizontal part of tail down. If the plane noses down too quickly, bend the trailing edge up. You want the plane to follow a nice smooth glide, almost but not quite pitching up.

For really long flights, you want to adjust the plane so it turns to the left. Then throw it straight up. If everything goes right it should climb almost straight up, then roll out and start a slow spiral back down to the ground.

I’ve played around with laminated paper airplanes some and now that I have a webpage I can finally post some of my designs for download. This is a pretty cheap hobby. The plans are free and you just cut them out and glue them together. The only thing most people won’t already have around the house is heavy paper.

This isn’t the kind of airplane we all used to fold in school. It is made from heavy cardstock, using many laminated layers for strength. Properly adjusted and thrown it can fly a long ways. I would suggest going to a large open space, like a park, to test it out. When I flew it from my driveway I ended up retrieving it from my neighbor’s yards most of the time.

Materials you will need:

• Heavy card stock. This is a thick paper, like 3×5 index cards. You can buy it at office supply stores.
• Scissors
• Glue. Plain white glue works well. I apply it using a small paintbrush.
• Something to score the paper with before folding. A ball-point pen will work, but will leave marks. I use the tip of the nailfile on my pocketknife. To score the paper carefully run your scoring tool along the fold line while pushing down. This will push a line into the paper and help it fold where you want. Use a ruler to get straight lines.
• A heavy stack of books to put the pieces under as the glue sets. Put a sheet of paper above and below the pieces you are gluing so excess glue doesn’t get on the books

Download G-1 plans (rev. 2):

• PDF format
• OpenOffice format

Once you have downloaded the plans print them out on heavy paper. Follow the directions to construct the plane. Once the plane is finished let it dry overnight. Then look here to see how to tune and fly your plane.

If you are interested in this sort of thing you might want to check out some of the Whitewings kits. That’s where I got my start from. Their designs are much more elegant than mine, and at least the kit I have came with a very nice booklet containing construction and flying tips.