ICARUS sets world record for largest paper airplane
The ICARUS team's massive paper airplane has set a new Guinness World Record for the largest paper airplane. The aircraft glided a distance of 59 meters.
An Italian team, ICARUS, has broken the Guinness World Record for the largest paper airplane ever constructed. The aircraft, also named ICARUS, achieved a wingspan of 20.04 meters and weighed 28.49 kilograms.
The record-setting flight took place at the WMF (We Make Future) exhibition in Bologna, Italy, on June 25th. The rules stipulated that the aircraft must launch from a height of 3 meters and fly at least 15 meters. ICARUS significantly surpassed this requirement, gliding a distance of 59 meters.
The previous record was set in 2013 by a paper airplane from the Technical University of Braunschweig. That aircraft had an 18-meter wingspan, a length of 5 meters, and a weight of 24 kilograms, successfully gliding 18 meters.
The ICARUS team's design incorporated principles from traditional aeronautical engineering to enhance stability. The structure includes spar and rib elements, leading and trailing edges, and tail surfaces. Laminated paper was used as the construction material, with repeated components and a specific geometric layout employed to maintain structural integrity without excessive weight.