A Living History of The Humble Paper Airplane

For centuries, paper airplanes have unlocked the science of flight—now they could inspire drone technology.

SARAH WELLS AND JENNIFER LEMANPUBLISHED: AUG 9, 2023 Popular Mechanics

Shinji Suzuki met Takuo Toda in 1999, atop Mt. Yonami in the southern city of Jinseki-Kogen, Japan. Toda, the chairman of the Japan Origami Airplane Association, was there to launch a large paper plane from a tower he had built on the mountaintop for just that purpose.

Toda persuaded the local city council to build the 85-foot-tall tower—with 360-degree views of Mount Daisen, Mount Dogo, and the Hiba Mountains—as a monument to paper airplane hobbyists. The first floor of the tower includes a showcase of precisely folded paper plane models, while the top floor opens into a veritable launch pad. When Suzuki first met Toda, he was launching the almost-seven-foot-long paper plane—modeled after the space shuttle Discovery—off that very flight deck. “He told me that he would like to launch this paper plane from the space station,” Suzuki, now an emeritus professor in aviation at the University of Tokyo, says. “Everybody laughed at him.”

https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/drones/a44112898/history-of-paper-airplanes/