It’s not safe to walk down my hallway these days. Even sitting quietly at the table eating my lunch is fraught with danger.
No, my house is not full of venomous spiders, or man-eating cockroaches, it’s full of kids who are obsessed with paper planes!
Every where I look there are paper planes – piles of crashed planes in the corner of my lounge room, planes zooming past my head as I make dinner, my five year old is even sleeping with his favourite plane!
As you can imagine we’ve spent a fair bit of time researching and testing to find the best designs and the coolest paper plane ideas, and today I’m going to share the results of all that folding and flinging with you.
Here are the very best paper plane ideas all in one place, just for you! (aren’t you lucky!)
What you’ll need to make a paper plane
- Paper – Most planes require a single sheet of A4 or US letter sized paper.
- Scissors – some planes require you to cut sections as you make them.
- Tape – some planes may require tape to hold them together, or you can use tape to add weight to make them fly better.
- Markers – it’s fun to personalise your paper planes with drawings and designs, or write a message on the paper before you fold it and send your letter via air mail!
Paper Plane Folding Instructions
Alex’s Paper Airplanes – This site has video instructions for loads of paper flying things, not just planes! Our favourite plane was Nick’s Paper Airplane.
Amazing Paper Airplanes – This site has clear pictures and instructions for lots of good fliers, some of them you can download a free printable
Fun Paper Airplanes – All of the planes on this site come with free printable instructions and folding sheets. We had success with the Condor and the Arrow.
This paper plane design from All For the Boys really is an awesome flyer (Image 1 above), and this square plane (Image 2 above) is great for learning how making adjustments affects flying, and this round plane is just plain cool.
Creative With Kids shares printable instructions for a simple paper plane that flies great. (Image 3 above)
Dover has some fun free printable paper planes to colour and fold.
Awesomely cool paper plane extras and add-ons
Make a giant paper plane with these tips from Fireflies and Mud Pies. (Image 1 above)
Add a simple rubber band to your plane to launch it even further with instructions from Mini Eco
Housing a Forest shows us how to use a chair to launch paper planes.
Take the launch concept even further with this awesome homemade paper plane launcher from Frugal Fun for Boys. (Image 2 above)
We made a simple tape landing strip inspired by this one at Meaningful Mama (Image 3 above) and it was loads of fun.
We also made a great hanging target to aim our planes at, inspired by Sewing Mama Reanna’s paper airplane party (scroll down about half way to see a photo)
Teach Beside Me also shared a great, simple, paper plane target.
This paper plane target from Repeat Crafter Me is also easy to make and looks fun.
Find out why a paper plane flies at Science Buddies.
And one last word of paper plane advice, buy some safety glasses or you might wish you had a house full of man-eating cockroaches instead!
Paper planes are awesome. LOVE this collection of ideas!
What great timing! Was thinking we needed to head to the library for some new folding ideas. We, too, are paper plane crazy, fueled moreso by our last movie night. Has your family watched “Paper Planes” yet? Just beautiful (plus no scary bits) and so nice to watch an Australian film.