Paper Airplanes Soar to New Heights in Japan

Being that most things in life are relative with the possible exceptions of being dead and pregnant, every sport has it limits, barriers, goals and records (and the hopes of breaking them). The world of competitive paper airplane throwing is no exception. In that flighty cosmos, a 20-second flight is exceptional, 25 or better is world class and thirty is well, at least until now, unheard of.

Only one man has ever come close to breaking the 30-second barrier. Paper airplane virtuoso, Takua Toda, flying a 10-centimeter long craft of his own design, is seeking to break the 27.9 record set by himself in Hiroshima a few months ago. Recognized by the Guinness World Records, that was the best ever recorded for a strictly paper-only craft and this record was set with a plane that had tape on it! His last attempt fell short of his previous mark, at 26.1 seconds.

“I felt a lot of pressure. Everything is a factor; the moisture in the air, the temperature, the crowd,” said Toda, after his paper airplane fly-off at a Japan Airlines hangar near Tokyo’s Haneda Airport.

Japan leads the world in creative arts and expression. An engineer by profession, Toda is the head of the Japan Origami Airplane Association and is virtually unmatched in his ability to fold paper aircraft.

Traditionally, only one sheet of paper is used to make the paper planes and it is never cut or pasted. Tape is allowed by Guinness but frowned upon by traditional origami schools of thought. Toda did not use tape for his 26.1 mark because of this and that record was still the best for a plane without cellophane keeping it together. (The previous record of 24 seconds had been his as well.)

According to Toda, aiming upward and not straight ahead is the key to throwing a paper plane effectively. This allows the plane to gain altitude and slowly circle back to the ground.

“It’s really a sport. The throwing technique is very delicate. I will get the 30-second record. It’s just a matter of time”, says Toda.

And who would dare not to believe him?

(Link)

By MDeeDubroff on 19-01-2010