In 2012, John Collins’ paper plane ‘Suzanne’ was thrown by football player Joe Ayoob. The plane flew a distance of 226 feet and 10 inches, which led to John being declared a Guinness World Record Holder for designing and folding the farthest flying paper plane. Now high school students will get an opportunity to attend a free workshop by him, presented by Atria University.
During a Zoom interview, John shows us his studio, and his paper planes. “This plane can circle back in either direction, and that plane looks like it is flapping its wings! That is amazing right, how does it do that?”
We have the same question: How does he go about the design process? “I wish I could tell you what the secret sauce is. But a lot of times I design a plane with a specific goal or plan.” John holds up one of his creations: the super canard and says: “This has an intentional design idea. The little wing in front helps the plane stall resistance. Sometimes you see a plane do something interesting and then you have to start investigating the aerodynamics of how the plane can do that. And then you start a little science experiment with that. You start a hypothesis on how that thing is going to work, devise an experiment, analyse results, rethink your hypothesis. It becomes this little science lab. My process of inventing planes is a lot like that. I decide what I want the plane to do so you can measure success. Did you do what you want or did you do something so interesting that you have to rewind and figure out more?
John, who has spent decades mastering the art of origami and aerodynamics, says that designing ‘Suzanne’ was intentional.
“That was a three year process to break the distance process. It was an idea never been done before. It turned out that at The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) they were working on a similar air flow idea (used for ‘Suzanne’) for entirely different reasons. When I met them years after I had broken the record, they said 'we would like to use your model'. I explained my paper plane theory to a NASA guy! It might seem like a childlike question to ask how do paper planes fly but it is not, it is an interesting scientific question.”
John has also published books on how to make paper planes and sees them as an educational tool that helps one study aerodynamics and geometry. “I am hoping the students get interested in the broad brushstrokes of how and why things fly but more importantly get them to understand that science is not difficult. We are going to look at different kinds of designs and just do some crazy things. I am making all this happen by turning my living room into a studio because all of the public events that I was signed up to do had to be rethought.”
Speaking about his interest in paper planes, John says, “Like most people my interest in paper planes started when I was young. It is just that I never got over it. I spent the next 50 years or so folding and making paper planes,” he says with a laugh.
Those interested in learning how to make a paper plane can register for the workshop here: https://bit.ly/2JypIc4 . It will be held at 7 pm on April 5.
