Are you looking for a paper airplane to make for a contest? Theres no doubt in my mind that the Dart Ultra is your best bet at winning any distance, speed or accuracy contest. In fact, a very similar design was used to break the world record for longest distance thrown for a paper airplane in 2003.
I was reading The New World Champion Paper Airplane book by John Collins and when he decided to try to break the world record for distance, his first choice was to test a similar dart paper airplane design. The main advantage of this paper airplane is that it requires very little tuning.
Throwing the Dart Ultra is like throwing a mini javelin. Take a couple steps, arch your back a little, and launch it at a 45 degree angle. Without much effort, I threw this paper airplane around 50-60 feet. With more conditioning, I'm sure I can make the 100 feet mark, which is the length of a basketball court.
This paper airplane flies just like a dart, so it's also a great contender for any aiming contest. You won't have to worry about this paper airplane swerving to one side because the Dart Ultra is a straight shooter. Like a dart, just aim and shoot. As the nose is slightly heavier, make sure to aim above your target.
The Dart Ultra is also similar to another Guinness world record related to paper airplanes. The record is for the number of paper airplanes thrown into watermelons in one minute. You can find this on youtube here: ua-cam.com/video/abOIImxD12Q/v-deo.html
In the video, the guy uses a similar narrow dart paper airplane to puncture each of the watermelons. I have not personally tested the Dart Ultra to puncture watermelons, however, I have been hit by it and it really, really hurts. Maybe I should have called this the "attacker" paper airplane!
FOLDING TIP: When you fold the last several steps, the paper gets very thick, make sure you have something smooth and hard to flatten each fold. In the video, I just used a highlighter.
PAPER
This video was taken using A4 80g printing paper. If you're having problems making the final folds, try using 70g paper instead.
STEP BY STEP INSTRUCTIONS
For picture by picture instructions on how to make this paper airplane visit:
www.coolpaperairplanes.com/
FOLDING / FLYING TIPS
1. Make sure each fold is perfectly aligned. If you have not seen my video on making the perfect paper airplane fold, you need to check this out first: www.coolpaperairplanes.com/make-any-paper-airplane-fly-far-paper-folding-101/
2. Use something hard, like a ruler, to crease each fold. The flatter the paper airplane, the better it will perform.
3. When you are done folding the paper airplane, angle the wings slightly upwards before flying it. This is called a dihedral angle and makes your paper airplane more stable.
4. Throw the Dart Ultra at a 45 degree angle as hard as you can!
5. For more tips on making your paper airplane fly far, check out my website:
www.coolpaperairplanes.com/category/learning-center/
DISTANCE
A similar paper airplane was thrown by a 15 year old in 2003 that got him the world record slightly above 200 feet. Although this record was broken in 2012 by a glider paper airplane thrown by a football quarterback, I strongly believe a paper airplane like the Dart Ultra can defeat the current record if thrown by a baseball pitcher.
TROUBLESHOOTING & FINAL WORDS
The great thing about the Dart Ultra is that it doesn't require much tuning. Just make sure you fold the tip of the paper airplane to be as sharp as possible. You also need to flatten the wings so they are extremely flat and straight.
Again, this is definitely a secret weapon to win most paper airplane contests. Most people try to make paper airplanes that glide but neglect to understand how to tune it properly so it usually curves, shoots upwards, or crashes prematurely. If you think you have a strong enough arm, you can skip most of the tuning, just throw the Dart Ultra with every inch of muscle you have.