Paper Blimp

This isn’t really a plane but is a great little paper airship it looks good and it works great! This is a paper aircraft from Michael O’Reilly who runs The Best Paper Airplane

Video Instructions

Written Instructions

Cut a long strip of writing paper as shown and notch each end as indicated in DIG. 1

Bend it over and slip each noch together. You will end up with a shape similar to a fish when looking through the opening as shown in DIG. 2.

That is all there is to assembly. Now place a small pebble (you could also use blue tac or soft silly putty) where indicated and squeeze the stone with your thumb and forefinger. Throw the stone and paper belt straight up. If you do it right the stone will lift the paper to an altitude until the stone begins to fall back to earth. The stone falls out of the loop and the airship begins to spin over the axis and gently returns to earth. When it spins it blurs together and looks just like and airship

How to Fly

Simply dropping the blimp off a balcony, stairwell or out of a high window is the safest way to fly it. It works best out doors where it can fly a long distance. You should drop the blimp parallel to the ground (not nose first or tail first) for the best results.

Throwing the blimp with a stone in its nose is your second option you could also use blue tac or soft silly putty. This takes practise and requires you to be very careful you don’t hit anyone. Throw the blimp with the stone grasped between finger and thumb vertically upwards and you can get it very high indeed. It will glide a long way floating like a blimp on the air currents. The first people I showed it to called it the flying fish. I like this name a lot!