To my core I’ve come to believe there may be no more powerful force in nature than the human imagination. As a problem-solving device, it is unparalleled. As a source of entertainment, it seems to have an unlimited capacity. When the happy scenario occurs that combines our problem-solving capacity with the entertainment functions of our imaginations, real genius can be the result.
While on a walk the other day I passed by a local gym that features a front wall made of glass. It was a grocery store at one time, or a department store I would guess. The gym is located in a large strip mall along with a Dollar Store, a rent-to-own outlet, a cigar shop, and a significant number of empty units.
My real estate investor brain takes notice of these things. I find myself wondering what opportunities might present themselves based on the economic factors, foot traffic, parking availability, and proximity to residential housing. That’s another way of saying my imagination gets spun up and running based on what sights and sounds engage me on my walk.
The gym includes a large main room full of weight machines, free-weights, treadmills, rowing machines, ellipticals, and of course a bank of televisions to zone out to while making use of the facilities. A smaller but still substantial room is sectioned off for what I can only assume are Zumba classes. Often packed full these classes are virtually 100% populated by women. From what I can see during the few seconds I pass by it seems they step and turn and lunge and sway in unison with great enthusiasm.
It’s interesting, isn’t it? Men tend to work out individually, or with a partner. Women seem to prefer a group setting. Both seek more or less the same goal but tend to pursue a different path to get there.
Hmm.
There is one more room visible from the walkway out front. It’s small. The smallest of the three by a wide margin. This one is set up as a daycare facility for children whose parents or caregivers are in the main weight room area, or the dance classroom. Some of its visitors are infants who sit passively awaiting their next feeding, or diaper change, or nap. A few young girls sit at a low table near the window where they play with dolls.
Behind them in the limited space leftover are two boys who are very much being boys. They jump, they lunge, they race about the room. Between them it seems they’re burning more calories than the women in the dance class or the majority of the men posing beside machines in the main room.
The device that has them so exited is one of the simplest toys known to man. They have each fashioned a plaything from a single sheet of printer paper. By folding it in half lengthwise, folding two corners on one end into the center crease, then folding the leftover flaps on each side of the center back on itself, they’ve created an airplane. A paper airplane that has captured their attention completely. If you build it, you can fly.
I’ve built a very similar craft myself. I suspect you have as well. You probably taught your children to build them. If you’re of an age to have grandchildren you may have bent down to teach this unique skill to those little tykes as well. Good for you. Good for them, too.
This is where it starts to get really interesting. These first paper airplane models are pretty flimsy. They don’t fly all that well. They aren’t fast. They generally don’t fly very far. And their flights are without any real control input by the pilot, who also serves as the launch system.
The first hints of engineering begin to take shape at this point. What if we folded the airplane differently to make it narrower? What if we made it stiffer? Pointier at the nose. What if we gave it Delta wings, or ailerons to counter the roll it exhibits? Or, what if we came up with an entirely new design that would fly slowly, but farther?
There are few things that can engage the brain of a child like the numerous challenges and joys that can come from the simple pleasure of folding a piece of paper into the shape of an airplane and playing with it. Whether it’s sunny outside or raining cats and dogs, the paper airplane is there, ready to go.
Any piece of paper will work. Even if it’s uneven, or has crooked lines, or ragged edges, the challenges these variations present may lead to inventive solutions. Education is afoot. Entertainment is guaranteed, at least for a time. The question becomes, can we encourage the boys and girls who gravitate to these simple homemade toys to continue their exploits?
Imagine what might happen if we encouraged these flights of fancy in the long term? Would a paper airplane experiment in the 5th grade tend to lead to interesting results? Would a fun, friendly discussion of the science that makes the craft work spark interest in bigger things? Might a young boy or girl see the world in a whole new way because they created something with their own hands, used it, modified it, improved it, and found the curiosity those steps inspired to be genuinely fascinating?
For all the smart-boards and computers and tablets and Wifi we seem to think we need to impart new information to kids in school and at home, I would suggest we are one sheet of paper away from grabbing their attention in a meaningful way. A far cheaper, more engaging, and even socially fulfilling method of grabbing the imagination of a child and setting it loose on the world.
Give it a try. At any age, there is a satisfaction to this simple act that never really goes away.
Every Christmas Aerodynamic Aviation at KRHV has a Christmas party and they always have a paper airplane flying contest. Mine always suck.
Last year, one of the planes flew the entire length of the hangar. Second place didn’t make it half way.
Regardless, it’s a lot of fun.
We didn’t have much money—aka wanted to build models but could afford only the paper left over from grocery bags—which Mom used to cover our school textbooks. After the books were covered and a bag was left over, the attempts were made to make those paper gliders. They didn’t fly straight and level very well, but an aerobatic maneuver known as rolling into the ground brought notoriety from friends. Then I would watch the Sky King show on Saturday mornings with a glass of Nestle’s Quik and dream how great it would be to be a pilot. Finally saved up the 10 cents to buy a Guillow’s glider & thought life couldn’t be any better, but then I saw the Guillow’s glider with a rubber band and propeller, but it was more expensive (35 cents) than the plain glider I had. Gave up the ice cream bars from the man in the Good Humor truck until I had enough money to buy that rubber powered Guillow. Life was wonderful. As time went on, I worked to be able to buy the stick & tissue models, (first one was a Cessna 170), then a control line P40 with an honest to God real glow fuel engine (Cox Babe Bee), then radio-controlled models that got knocked out of the sky more often than not due to radio interference. Alas at the age of 19, my summer job would permit me to take flying lessons in a Piper J3 Cub & then transition to Cherokee 140s for the cross-country phase. I paid by the hour because that’s all the funds would permit and as a result, earned my ticket in 1 year. Parents couldn’t understand it because,” Only birds and idiots fly”. Told them that if that was the case, then they gave birth to the biggest idiot in the world. Rented for years by saving a few bucks as I went along, but owning an airplane was an unreachable dream. However, Sky King kept inspiring me and long story short, at the age of 73, I have owned a Piper Cherokee 140, a Grumman AA1A, and 3 V Tail model 35 Bonanzas. I haven’t owned or flown for 3 years, but I just can’t shake this flying thing no matter how I try. As a result, I will be buying an old but tried and true Cessna 150 soon just to be able to fly to the 10 miles (statute) for eggs and coffee with other old but not bold aviators Somehow, I know the conversation will be about how to build the best paper glider.
We learned a lot making those paper airfoils. We didn’t just limit ourselves to a sheet of paper. Tape, paper clips and other attachments gave lots of rudimentary lessons in weight and balance, and other flight fundamentals. Ripping a small section of the trailing edge and folding it down was another trick. We didn’t even know it was called ‘flaps’.
Always a great article by Jamie Beckett. I love your wanderings and ponderings. Have a safe and Happy 4th of July.
Good thoughts. I was the champion paper airplane builder in grade school. Turned that into a career in aerodynamics and aircraft design. Started flying at age 15. All on my own nickel. I now teach a class in light aircraft design during a popular aviation summer camp at Sovereign Aerospace based at KSOP. We hold a paper airplane contest with simple rules, nothing more than one piece of paper, no tape, glue, scissors, etc. And a hard time limit of 10 minutes to build and test before the contest, throwing across the width of an emptied hangar. The variation in performance is astounding. It also is a good lesson in a few basics, such as defining the mission and design constraints, and tweaking design aspects such as dihedral and balance. Then we show them the planes around the ramp and they suddenly start talking about various degrees of dihedral and why this varies depending on wing location and sweep. No tech, no computers, no phones allowed. We also make a FPG-9 flying wing from a foam plate to demonstrate how a wing alone can be made to fly stable. 20+ kids are easily taught this way. My seven year old grandson’s paper airplane design beats them all, his own creation. He is Christian home-schooled so there are no distractions from tech, social media, garbage music, etc.
Would we, could we inspire the very young to discover the simple pleasures that preceded the digital age? Even before the television era? I watched an all-time favorite film earlier this week; Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.” As Jem , Scout and Dill played on a rope swing. Filled a cigar box with Boo Radley’s gifts left in a knothole even as lawyer Atticus accepted a fee of field corn in lieu of scarce Depression cash…
There’s a move afoot. And it’s a good one. Withholding social media from our youth until age 16. Cell phones banned from the classroom. More and better after school programs encouraging hands-on creative thinking and problem solving. We can do this.
Wonderful… have memories of making and flying those paper planes in and around the house when very young. Flying them through doorways into the next room back and forth with my brother. Made some with my grandchildren when they were younger. Sometimes when they come over they want to go up in the plane with grandpa:)