Paper Airplane Day 26th May, 2019 will be celebrated

Learn about Paper Airplane Day

Every day, there are hundreds of people all over the world who are showing Wilbur and Orville Wright that their feat of creating an airplane wasn’t really all THAT impressive. After all, all it takes is a simple piece of paper and a few clever folds, and you can create an airplane all your own as well! Paper Airplane Day celebrates this humble bit of aeronautics and reminds us of the role it played in our youth, and can still play in our present.

History of Paper Airplane Day

We weren’t kidding when we said that Wilbur and Orville Wright’s achievements weren’t THAT impressive, at least when it comes to creating a craft that can fly. Ok, so it definitely wasn’t the same thing as their amazing machine and the impressive changes it made to the world, but the fundamental concepts may have been developed in the humble medium that is the paper plane. So just how old IS the art of the paper plane? Well, certainly you’re familiar with an art form out of Asia known as origami? It followed on the heels of the creation of paper in 500 BCE.

While we’re uncertain precisely where the first paper airplane was formed, what we do know is that for the next thousand years paper airplanes were the form of man-made aircraft that got the most attention. Even Da Vinci was inspired by this, as many of his models and sketches proposed for manned aircraft were suggested to make out of parchment. The Wright Brothers were known to study paper aircraft extensively in their development of that first amazing flight.

So while we may have thought of them as little more than simple toys and ways to annoy our teachers, they’ve actually played a vital role in one of the most important inventions in the transportation industry, the plane. You could even say that ultimately, paper planes put us on the moon.

How to celebrate Paper Airplane Day

Celebrating Paper Airplane Day is simple and fun! Just pick up a piece of paper and fold it into your favorite airplane shape and give it a toss! Looking for something a bit more challenging? The typical wedge-shaped paper airplane is just the simplest form, there are books, clubs, and hobbyists who all engage in the past-time of creating complex paper airplanes that can reach amazing distances with surprising stability. Paper Airplane Day is your chance to show up your younger self by creating the best paper airplane ever!