Boeing engineers’ paper plane breaks Guinness World Record for 'farthest flight'

Three engineers from the aerospace giant Boeing just made a new Guinness World Record. Garrett Jensen, Nathan Erickson and Dillon Ruble managed to fly a paper airplane for a length of 88.31 m, dubbed the “farthest flight by a paper aircraft.” They set the record on December 2, 2022, at Crown Point city in Indiana, US. According to Indian Express, Ruble and Jensen have a hobby of making origami planes. Last year, they simulated the designs of different hypersonic aircraft, which can travel five times the speed of sound, with paper planes. With knowledge and practice, they made a smaller version of a small paper plane named Mach 5. 

It took them around 20 times to make it out of A4 paper. Jensen talked about the designs saying,  “For the Guinness World Records, we ended up going with A4-sized paper (dimensions of 210 x 297 mm) and went up to the maximum weight, 100 grams per square meter. The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.” It flew across 88.31 m and broke the previous record of 77 m, made by Kim Kyu Tae and Shin Moo Joon of South Korea and Chee Yie Jian of Malaysia. According to BNN, Jensen and Ruble are second and third-generation Boeing employees and have fond memories of attending company Family Day events as children.

“We would fold paper airplanes back then as a fun childhood activity,” Ruble said. “Origami, or the art of folding paper, became a long-term passion.” This passion made them reach the Guinness World Record. “It was hard to believe,” Ruble said. “It was one of those moments: Is this real?” With the help of Jensen, the duo made history that will be remembered for years. “We hope this record stands for quite a while — 290 feet (88 meters) is unreal,” Jensen said. “That’s 14 to 15 feet (4.2 to 4.6 meters) over the farthest throw we ever did. It took a lot of planning and a lot of skill to beat the previous record.”

Ruble and Jensen studied Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Missouri S&T in Rolla. Originally from St.Louis, they are engineers for Boeing today. “It really put things on the map and it’s a really proud moment for family and friends,” Ruble said. “It’s a unique story to tell at this point, especially working for Boeing. It’s a good tie-in to aerospace and thinking along the lines of designing and creating prototypes.” On the day of the record, they achieved the desired results on the third throw. “We found the optimal angle is about 40 degrees off the ground. Once you’re aiming that high, you throw as hard as possible. That gives us our best distance,” Jensen said. “It took simulations to figure that out. I didn’t think we could get useful data from a simulation on a paper airplane. Turns out, we could.”

They also shared a pearl of wisdom for fellow dreamers and future engineers. “Find a project you are passionate about. Find a source of inspiration within the aerospace field and learn as much as possible,” Ruble said. “Embrace working hard at it, too. That’s what our team did. We put our heads down and tried to advance the typical paper airplane.”