Plane No. 5 - The F15



Click here to download the instruction picture.

This plane is my second oldest, I think. This plane is tempremental to say the least. Even if the utmost care is taken over contruction, the outcome seems to be pretty random. Most fly badly, rolling over continuously during flight. However the ones that fly well are complete stormers, which is why I have included this design. Indeed a modified version (I have forgotton what the modifications were, of course) was one of the stars of the show when Tim W & I went down to the gym at school, regularly flying the complete length of the gym.

Notes on the contruction

  1. Standard beginning. A4 piece of paper, making creases at two corners.
  2. Then fold as shown, creases so the marked edges (1 mark, 2 marks) join up well.
  3. The more extreme version of this fold at this point, making the creases for the 'waterbomb' fold of the next step. This is the same beginning as plane no. 2 (which was decended from this plane).
  4. Folding the sides up into the middle should bring the front over, if the creases made in the previous step are good enough. You will find that the sides, when folded into the middle overlap underneath the top flap.
  5. To make the next fold easier, fold the entire plane in half in a mountain fold.
  6. This is the tricky step, well nigh impossible actually. This is what I got rid of in plane no. 2, and you will see why now. Remember the side flaps from step 4 that overlapped? Well you want to fold these (and no other flaps) in a mountain fold along the centre-line of the plane, so that they fold back onto their own side, inbetween the back (the main part) of the plane and the top (which is the front of the plane folded back over from step 4). You'll probably have to kind of unfold the previous couple of steps to be able to get at the bit of the plane in the middle that you want to fold. The creases should already be there from step 5.

    6a is a picture of what the plane should now look like, if you view it from the back (the right hand side in the plan views) looking 'up' the plane. The top of this picture is the front of the plane folded over, the bottom is the back of the plane. The sides are the side flaps that were first folded in from step 4, and have now been folded back on themselves. Good luck!

  7. Now take just the top layer of the plane and fold it up and over, so that the points match up at the front of the plane. This is the same fold that is used in plane 4. As you make this valley fold the sides will fold over and into the middle of the plane. You want to fold these down so that they just meet in the middle.
  8. Now make the usual folds to get the wings and the flaps. I think that the fuselage should be around 2cm deep, and the flags should take up about half of the remaining wing width; in this case around 4.3cm. Make all these folds to be right-angles to create the plane. Note: when folding the fuselage do not fold over the two flaps at the front which were created by the previous couple of folds; these should stick up to create the 'cockpit' of the F15.

Notes on throwing

As I said before, this plane will either be brilliant or crap - there is no middle ground. When it flies well there is almost no lift, so this is a really speed merchant. Thrown fast enough it will travel long distances easily, and on a flatter trajectory than most darts. If you build one that flies well - tell me about it! The bad version of this plane spirals down in to the floor. Occasionally making a tail upright will sort this out. You do this by cutting or tearing the fuselage (only!) at an angle about 3-4cm from the back of the plane. You want to cut it so the cut is closer to the back of the plane at the bottom of the fuselage, further away from the wings. You then fold this up so it sticks up above the wings, the opposite way from the fuselage.

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