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Giant Paper Airplane Takes (Brief) Flight Over Arizona
The L.A. Times reports that 12-year-old Arturo Valdenegro's winning entry in a paper-airplane contest got
upscaled to slightly larger dimensions, courtesy of Pima Air & Space Museum's Giant Paper Airplane Project, and flown, via helicopter assistance, in the Arizona desert. Slightly larger, in this case, means the plane based on Valdenegro's designs "was 45 feet long with a 24-foot wingspan and weighed in at a whopping 800 pounds," constructed of a tough, corrugated material called falcon board. Unfortunately, the tow didn't take the plane as high as planned (only 2,703 feet, instead of four or five thousand) so the resulting flight was brief and destructive — which doesn't make the accompanying launch video any less fun to watch, though I wish it showed more of the flight, including its end. (I tend to always make the same kind of acrobatic glider; do you have any good paper-airplane hints?)
is an equally upscaled trebuchet.
NB: The message above might reflect my opinion right now, but not necessarily tomorrow or next year.
DARPA is already on it.
Should people who still weigh themselves in stone really argue this on Slashdot?
omg, i'm such a n00b and fb whore, I tried to thumb up your comment.
Around here it tends to be more of a "single finger" up and it's often applied via an AC comment...
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office