Starting out on the Book

I need your help!!!

Since 1999 I have been running websites about paper airplanes and it's been awesome to get visitors to the sites, have you guys voting on the paper airplanes showing which ones you like, the emails have been cool and I made enough money to put myself through college from the advertising on the site and the first book I wrote in 2001/2. There have also been a bunch of errors down the years, the site went down completely on certain days, early forums I had on my site poll were filled with some really vile stuff I didn't want kids seeing and the only ways I dug myself out/had time to see the errors on a site with 100k visitors a month was with the help of you guys. The visitors.

So 2007 is going to be a new and slightly scary step for me, I am going to start a conversation with you guys visiting the site and hopefully get one output:

the best ever book on paper airplanes

Regarding the book I don't want to publish another lame book with dull instructions, I want to create something better and more impressive. I can't do it alone, I need help and with a user base of >100k I am hoping we can team up and work it through. So use the comments suggestions area and get going, what do you want to see in a paperairplanes book? Just instructions? Photos? Diagrams? Do you want to hear about lift and drag? Do you want flying instructions? How about competitions that you can hold with your friends or am I heading in totally the wrong direction with a traditional book with just a list of planes to make and instructions for each one?

Let's talk about it add your comment now :)

Comments

[Alex]

Well....I personally prefer instructions with diagrams, usually colored :3

Although you can put info on drag, weight, and other stuff like that near the back, so people that just want the instructions don't hafta look far.

Thats all I got; Good luck ^^

[Alex]

Hey thanks alex :)

Coloured instructions is a good point actually since I could go for a colour or black and white book. Colour sounds good. What does everyone else think?

[Aaron -13 yrs old]

I`d just like to say that if you fold the top of a piece of paper, about 3 times (1 inch per fold) And then fold like you would the classic dart, You will get the classic dart with a nice hard tip.

[Alex]

Nice thanks for the suggestion Aaron (13 ;) ). I already tried out your plane... awesome suggestion :)

[laurice]

I MAKE THE BEST PAPER AIRPLANE ON THE PLANET AND I ONLY USE ONE SHEET OF PAPER/INTACKED 12X18 AND I US NOTHING ELSE.NO GLUE OR PAPERCLIPS .THE PLAN ALSO FLYS AND HAS ALL OF THE FUNCTIONAL PARTS OF A REAL AIRPLANE.THE COCKPIT EVEN OPENS AND HAS A CRASH PROOF NOSE

[David]

Hmm... colour in the books would surely only be needed if there were to be photographs of the finished product?

To be honest, the style of the instructions on the site would be great as they are - it's simple and clean. The diagrams are superb.

Alex's suggestion for stats etc is fantastic as well though. And how about an added section at the back to record records of distance thrown for particular models or something similar?

I really appreciate your work,

Cheers,

David.

[Anthony]

This Website is really cool!

[David W]

hey i have a paper aeroplane design thats about 15 or so years old but its really good really simple and almost impossible to improve it a glider and i hold a personal record not offical but it good it does between 15 and 20 sec even once it did 33.83 !

[Phillip Reed]

Paper airplane how to's

[Phillip Reed]

instruction;diagrams;lift and drags

[Adam]

You are doing great work on the site, personally I think you should do different "chapters" on certain kinds of planes, E.G. Gliders, Bullets, and Freefallers.

Laurice, if you are true, then email the guy and have him put it up here. And watch, I'm not going to get a response, or a I'll get a really snappy defensive response.

[Brian]

There are many, many different types of paper available to purchase. Explaining the pros and cons of each would be helpful to the novice (i.e. me) paper plane engineer.

Also, folding tips would be wonderful. The origami 3 instructions and video were very clear, but they sort of gloss over the battle that ensues in the folds in steps 6 and 7. The amount of paper that has to be folded is fairly thick by step 6, and it was hard for me to get a clean fold. However, this could have a lot to do with the paper I was using (standard printer paper); I don't know.

[Vlad]

I have one advice for your website, that I think would be a major improvement. reverse the freekin colors!, that white is terrble for the eyes..@-) make it black and just make the text a lighter colour... it shouldn't be that hard, and people would use your site more.

[huwehougq]

bad stuff dudes

[Chieze Okoye]

Yeah, I really like the idea of the pros and cons of paper types. Maybe you could discuss the optimal type of paper for each airplane design in the book (maybe show it in a small table of the stats of the design at the beginning of each). An index at the end of the book with the inverse information (the airplanes that go best with the different types of paper) might be good, too.

Oh, for the pictures of the folding of the plane in the book (I assume you'll have pics to help people along in the folding process), you could use paper with different colors on each side so that it's clear what's folding how and in what direction.

[Thomas]

Hi,
you really have a great website, I admire your work, and if you publish a book, I will buy it. I think you should explain about lift drag etc, how to throw (maybe for each plane a different thing with photos and diagrams). I think you should include paper but don't draw lines, it gives the reader the impression he has nothing to do (that's what I think). I think you should test each plane to see how long it can float, what distance and other stats and put it in a table, so we can see which planes have what capacities... I hope I was helpfl, keep up the good work, thank you and good luck for your book !

[connor]

hi jus wanted 2 say this is a v cool website but my ownly problem is with reading the instructions the ones with vidooes are good but some dont have vidioes so i get confused by the instructions a cool idea is saw in i book wa that it told you 2 put dots on ur page befor hand and then you can see which bits to fold just a suggestion from connor :)

[connor]

hi i think that the book should be arraged like the website hardest 2 make at the back and easyest at the front that way u could work ur way through the book and get a good idea of what u could do and what would just end up as a scrunched up mess!

[Matthew from Louisville]

Great web-site and forum here.I just finished making some models from a book with supplied paper. A couple of them worked allright, most of them, not well at all.

I experimented with a design and have had some great success with it. It does require a bit (or a lot) of tweaking. The results have been amazing. I named it the CJ-6.5 (My sons name and age) When tuned properly, along with a strong toss at 30 degrees from the horizon, it can climb to 35 - 40 feet quickly, then (when tuned properly) can glide very well. Had a fifteen to twenty second flight today.

I will try to explain how to assemble it if you would like it on your sight. I consider myself a novice at best, but this one is worth looking at. I am looking forward to trying some of the models on your sight (Alex's) this week.

Matt from Louisville.

[kavan]

u know wat il help u sooooooooooo much!

[fox144112]

you should find more planes from the web you should make like a gaint 200 page plane book not a wipy32 page

[Alex]

Great site, visited it loads, love the cobra especially.
I'm no expert on paper airplanes, i do some origami, and have made almost all the planes on your site with varying degrees of success.

I reckon the most difficult folds should be identified by beginners. photos help, I agree that colours help to identify different parts, and dotted lines, but i find plain line drawings a more effective form of visual communication, as they are seems pretty good to me.

I also think that tips on throwing and types of flight are a great addition to your site and should definitely be included.

Don't please include those pull out planes, they don't help improve folding or design skills. and are usually just for show, but it doesn't seems as though that's the ave you're going down anyway.

I definitely think you should cram it with as many designs as possible. The more models the better, bad ones are good because they help beginners/designers understand the values of particular styles and folds.

Get people to agree to having their designs included.

I like the idea of sections that indicate levels of difficulty.

Hope these comments are cool, please e mail me if book goes ahead with title etc. keep up good site and work

out

[Rc]

i made a paper airplane... well i was like 12 when i made it and found at it flew really well. My first version of it was called the bat(cause if you threw it hard the wing started to flap up and down). Well i fixed that problem but then i did another experiment and the plane looked like... a ww2 german "Stuka" (pretty much the primary dive bombers of germany in ww2) it's pretty cool lookin

[ALEX 9501]

Love your work, keep it up... In the book you could say how wide should be a fold (i.e. 2 cm, 3 inches...), the scale (2:1...). It would help a lot

[Mikey 9yrs]

Hey, Laurice, How do you make the best p.a.p. er airplane? That, and just go clr, dgrms, lft+drg in bck, updates/a series & that's it from me.