SPARKWe’ve all made one... just not like this
Paper plane
E
veryone who has ever been bored has, at some
point, made a paper aeroplane. Bizarrely, as
powered flight was only invented a few generations
ago, it seems to be in our DNA. But one intrepid
maker has taken the instinctive art of paper folding
and elevated it to a level far beyond what we, as
bored school kids, would ever have dreamed possible. His name is
Luca Ionica-Stewart, and he’s a UX designer.
Luca started this project in 2008 as part of a school assignment.
Since then he’s been adding, removing, rebuilding, and refining the
build until it reached the state you see here – and he’s still not
finished. Notably, there are no wings, traditionally an essential part
of an aeroplane. These are still in production. Luca estimates there’s
a couple of years’ work until he’s happy with them, but as they
contain thousands of parts and have many, many articulating parts,
it’s a long process to get them right.
The toolkit is as minimal as it gets: two thicknesses of Manila
paper, glue, a cutting board, metal ruler, and a sharp knife are all
Luca’s allowed himself. Even a laser cutter is off-limits, as the cut
paper edges need to be cleaner than a burning laser can provide.
He works from photos and videos culled from the internet, or,
where possible, technical drawings. Then the hard part begins:
figuring out a way to turn a 3D part into a 2D slice that can be cut
out, glued, rolled up, and assembled. With cheap tools, cheap
materials, an endlessly patient nature, and impressive technical
skills, anyone can make their own 1:60 scale aeroplane. What’s
stopping you?