Giant Paper Airplane takes off

Remember school? The ancient art of the paper plane was tricky to conquer, not to mention competitive. Get it right and you're the master manipulator of A4. But get it wrong and your plane falls limply to the floor. You become a laughing stock. Gain a nickname like 'Limp Luke'. Up yours Gordon Beresford.

Which is why we've got the utmost respect for Arturo Valdenegro a young man of 12 from Tucson, who won a competition to get his paper plane created real size, when his own regular-sized paper plane flew further than any of his classmates.

The Great Paper Airplane Project, launched by the Pima Air & Space Museum, transformed Arturo's design into a huge 45ft-long paper plane with a 24ft wingspan.

For its maiden flight, it was towed 4,000ft into the sky by a Sikorsky S58T helicopter, before being released to fly independently and accompanied close by a stunt plane to illustrate its scale and magnitude.

Below you can see a glimpse of the launch although sadly you won't be able to see the full voyage. According to reports, the plane soared above Tucson, Arizona, at speeds of around 98 miles per hour before returning to Earth six seconds later (yeah six seconds ain't great). We'll get the full vid when it's available.

(Via Mail Online)

(Images: Reuters)