The Classic Dart

This one is the most well known plane in the world, and is considered by many as pretty useless, but actually has its uses. Not only as a good fast plane, but it’s a good plane to learn from, both from the point of view of just folding the plane and from learning to modify designs to meet your own needs.

Here goes.....

Fold a piece of A4 paper lengthways and open out again.

Make two 45 degree folds into the centre.

Now make 2 more folds into the centre.

Fold the plane in half along the fold made in step I.

Fold down wings, this is normally done so the wings are the same size as the fuselage, but larger wings make the plane more of a floater, with more lift, and smaller wings make for a faster dart, that flies a smaller distance. Just experiment!

Open out into plane shape. Experiment with wing angles for the best results. A good starting level is just above level.

A number of variations of this plane exist. A good place to start with modifying this design is to make adjustments the back of the wings as you would to correct its flight, but actually folding (see below) so that the extent of the lift causes the plane to loop the loop. If you fold the flaps upwards, it will loop upwards, and vice versa. If you fold one upwards on one downwards, the plane will spiral through the air, although not for very long.

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