KIDS IN ACTION
November 2006

The World's Biggest Paper Airplane

Getting the height and position right is vital for making the plane fly. (Asahi Shogakusei Shimbun)

A group of Japanese elementary school students had a dream: to fold a giant sheet of paper into the world's biggest paper airplane and make it fly.

Every year the Dream Delivery Project run by the Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly for Youth Development invites schoolchildren in Hiroshima Prefecture to send in their dreams and then sets about making the dreams come true. This year Ikeda Tomohiro, a sixth grader at Minami Elementary School in Fuchu City, and four friends sent in their dream: "We want to make the biggest paper airplane in the world." Tomohiro loves origami (paper folding) and making things. In October 2005 his dream was selected to come true, and the paper airplane project began.

Origami is a traditional pastime that has been enjoyed by Japanese people since the Heian era (794-1192). It involves folding a single piece of paper to make various shapes and objects. Children learn to make origami cranes and balloons from their teachers and parents, and paper airplanes are one of the most popular types of origami. Kids sometimes get together to see who can make their plane fly furthest. Even for kids like Tomohiro who are used to making paper airplanes, though, creating the biggest paper airplanes in the world was a big challenge.

The paper used to make the planes was 3.1 meters long, 2.2 meters wide, and weighed 4 kilograms. It is hard to fold such a huge sheet of paper, so the kids had to practice to make sure they didn't make any mistakes. With help from Mr. Toda Takuo, president of the Japan Paper Airplane Association, the group of friends started by making prototype planes one-third of the target size. About one month before the scheduled flight, they started making the world's biggest paper planes.

	Folding such a big sheet of paper is hard. (Hiroshima Prefectural Assembly for Youth Development)

Using paper ordered especially through a local paper factory, the kids measured and cut out sheets of exactly the right size. Following the instructions of Tomohiro, their leader, they then worked together to fold the paper into the right shape. The airplanes they made were shaped like space shuttles and even had cockpits. To make each one, the kids had to fold the paper nearly 100 times. They had to firmly press down on each fold so as to avoid any unwanted bends, and the friction from the paper sometimes made their hands hot.

The weather was sunny on the day when the kids finally got their chance to fly their airplanes. With all 214 students from their school and lots of parents cheering them on, Tomohiro and his friends unveiled six Dream Challenger airplanes, each 2.05 meters long. For each flight, three of the team held a plane above their heads and took a run-up of several meters before launching the craft into the air.

They managed three successful flights from eight attempts, recording a longest flight of 40.7 meters. "I like changing a single sheet of paper into something else," commented Tomohiro. Congratulations to him and his friends for making their dream of a giant paper airplane come true.