What’s the longest time you have managed to keep your paper plane airborne? Our records don’t even compare to this 2 hour and 7 minutes flight. Yes, a paper airplane actually flew that long. Who made it? What was the aim? A team of US Air Force auxiliary volunteers secured this achievement and has managed to break the Guinness World Record for the highest paper airplane flight. The team launched the paper airplane from a height of 29,432 meters with the help of a high-altitude balloon.
The US Fox Valley Composite Squadron Illinois Wing, Civil Air Patrol has stated on a press release published on the website that the airplane’s launching took place from Kankakee, Illinois and the plane made its landing about 132 km away somewhere Southwest of Rochester, Indiana. The whole flight took about 2 hours and 7 minutes to complete.
The paper airplane, created by cadets of the US Air Force, bears a conventional shape. It has been made out of paper board with a length of 76 cm and a wingspan of 36.8 cm. The entire assembly weighs 15 oz. The plane has a GPS tracking system, barometric pressure sensor, temperature sensors, flight computer, solar panel, batteries and a HD video camera that was used for filming the flight.
The launching was carried out by attaching the plane to a helium balloon, which carried it up to a certain altitude before bursting, and upon bursting the flight computer cut itself away and initiated the flight. The Fox Valley Composite Squadron has beaten the previous record holder based in UK, PARIS team and team’s Vulture 1 paper airplane. There is, however, news that they will be working to reclaim the title. Sounds pretty interesting, doesn’t it?