The Swallow Paper Airplane

The Swallow is a classic paper airplane design that flies really well. It has been called the World's Best Paper Airplane.

You can view our video below and / or follow our photo instructions below that:

Start with a piece of printer paper. This can be either 8.5 by 11 inches, or A4 size. It must be rectangular, not square. Origami paper will not work for this. It's too light and small. Larger paper airplanes generally fly better.

Valley fold the top left corner over to the right as shown. Crease well.

Unfold the paper, then repeat the last fold on the other side of the paper.

Do a mountain fold horizontally through the intersection of the crease marks.

Unfold the last fold, then begin to collapse the paper as shown in the next five (5) photos. This is somewhat similar to a water balloon base , with some extra paper at the bottom (since we started with a rectangle not a square).

Fold corner A upwards as shown. Repeat for corner B.

Now fold both A and B downwards. Next, fold C and D to the centerline, then unfold.

Make a squash fold as shown to bring C to the centerline. This is similar to making a fin in the fishbase . Repeat on the right side.

Fold the bottom edge of the piece up, then unfold. Cut or tear along the creaseline, and save the extra piece for later.

Put the cut piece aside. Mountain fold the top point of this piece (the wings) to the back as shown.

Mountain fold the wing section in half as shown. Now fold the wings down as shown in the next five (5) photos. The front of the wing base should be slightly higher than the back, by about 2-3mm. When viewed from the front or back, both wings should be at the same angle, angled upwards towards the tips.

Now fold the tips of each wing upwards as shown. Each tip should be at the same angle to its wing.

Go back to the strip of paper you cut or tore earlier. We'll use this for the fuselage (body) of the Swallow. Fold it in half lengthwise.

About 1 inch from the end of the fuselage, cut or tear halfway across. Then fold down each half as shown to form the horizontal stabillizer (tail). Each half should be at about 90 degrees to the fuselage.

Insert the other end of the fuselage into the wing section. Slide it all the way forward.

Turn over your completed Swallow Paper Airplane!