A school house was built in approximately 1350 in Barnstaple, a small town in southwest of the United Kingdom. Kids attended school there until 1910 when the building became a chapel, St. Anne’s Chapel. During it’s time as a school house the kids lost a number of toys in the building. The toys fell into the floor boards, got in between the walls and the in the rafters of the ceiling. St. Anne’s Chapel was under repair in 2012 and the construction workers began finding the toys lost by the kids that had attended the school. James May went to see as part of one of his TV shows (James May’s Toy Stories Season 2 Episode 2 Flight Club). While searching the rafters James pulled out a small paper airplane that had sat up there for well over 100 years.
I was able to get a few pictures of the airplane and made a 1:1 scale model of the paper plane. So that you can see how the planes made by the kids of that era. A big thank you to Megan Sanders and the Barnstaple town council for sending me these pictures.
Here is a leaflet that covers the history in more detail
Here is the free paper airplane pattern. Please do not share this file, instead share a link to this website. Thank you.
Folding instructions:
- If this is your first HobbyCaptain.com paper airplane go through instructions found on the getting started page
- Print the pattern, Cut 1 of the 8 patterns out
- Fold along crease line 1-4, fold so that the line is on the outside of the fold
- Unfold the to create the crease
- Fold along lines 2, 3 in numeric order, fold so that the line is on the outside of the fold
- Fold along line 1-4 to finish the crease already started
- Fold along line 5 to form the wings, fold so that the line is on the inside of the fold
- Give the wings a bit of a U or Y shape to give the plane some dihedral
- Give a small pinch upward on the back of the plane to give the plane just a bit of elevator
This plane can glide surprisingly well, but it is also really twitchy. A small amount of angle or imbalance on either wing makes the unstable in flight. This also means it is a really good stunt plane.
