Lift likes a clean crease
Matched wings share the load. A 2 mm mismatch starts a turn before the plane leaves your fingertips.
Lab note 08.7 Aeronautics / one sheet
Paperflightlab.
One uncut A4 sheet. Three airframes. A 24-metre hall where every crease, launch angle and millimetre of elevator trim changes the story.
Enter the folding bay ↓
01 fold02 trim03 throw
HYPOTHESIS 01
“The smallest aircraft deserves a proper wind tunnel.”
— Dr. Mira Vale
Lead paper aerodynamicist
North Hall Flight Club
01 / FOLDING BAY
Choose an airframe.
Make the crease count.
Each design begins as the same 210 × 297 mm sheet. Follow mountain and valley marks, or let the bench fold it for you.
NEEDLE DART · STEP 1/4BENCH LIVE
Mountain fold Valley fold
Symmetry 99.8%
Stored 01
02 / TEST HALL
Trim. Aim. Let go.
The hall solves lift, drag and gravity from your airframe in real time. A nose-high trim can turn a record glide into a stall.
NEEDLE DART / THROW 0010.0m
STALL
Nose climbed beyond 18°. Ease the elevator toward +1 mm and throw again.
0m4812162024m
CONTROLLED A/B TESTMove elevator trim from +7 mm to +1 mm. We keep the failed path in chalk, then throw again so you can watch the stall disappear.
03 / WHY IT FLIES
Four forces.
One small argument.
A paper plane is always negotiating. Speed asks for distance; drag asks it to slow down; gravity never misses a meeting.
Drag is not the villain
A broad glider spends drag to buy stability. The trick is paying only as much as the mission needs.
Trim changes the conversation
One millimetre at the elevator shifts pitch enough to cure a dive—or invite a dramatic stall.
OUR FRIENDLY MODELL = ½ρv²S CL
More speed or wing area makes more lift, until the angle becomes too steep and airflow lets go.
04 / SMOKE TUNNEL
See the air
make up its mind.
Our virtual smoke comb releases twelve laminar threads. Watch them hug the Atlas wing at 4°, then break away as the trim pitches it beyond 18°.
Attached flow Separation
Flow attached. Smoke follows the upper surface and recombines behind the wing.
05 / THE CHALKBOARD
Hall records.
Still within reach.
Every record below used one uncut sheet of A4, launched behind the brass line in still indoor air.
YOUR BENCH RECORD—Complete a clean throw to enter the chalkboard margin.
CURRENT DISTANCE RECORD
23.84m
LEO NAKAMURA · ATLAS GLIDER · 04 JUN
- 02Sofía BernNeedle Dart / 16° / +1 mm22.91m
- 03Amir OkaforAtlas Glider / 11° / 0 mm22.44m
- 04June HalleyLoop Finch / 19° / −1 mm19.08m
- 05Tomas VennNeedle Dart / 14° / +2 mm18.76m
FIELD NOTE / 80