How To Make a Paper Airplane

Paper airplanes are simple and easy to make and yet people write so many articles and discussions on the topic. Maybe the reason is that there are hundreds of different paper airplane models and hundreds of ways to make a paper airplane.
Instead of sharing common sense tips, that are supposed to be applied to any kind of paper airplane, but in fact don't work for any specific model, I'll share quick and easy guides how for two specific models.

Let's go ahead:  

The "Arrow" paper airplane

The Arrow is probably the simplest and most popular airplane that even a kid can make. It flies far and fast. Here is how:

1. Take a square sheet of paper. You can make a square from a standard Letter size paper by folding diagonally and cutting the extra paper that remains outside of the two stuck triangles.

2. Fold the square at the vertical middle (to receive a rectangle) and reopen it.

3. Make two diagonal folds in such a way that the two corners of the upper side will meet their edges at the fold which you made in the previous step.

4. Now you need two folds that are harder to explain. They start from the new formed nose and diagonally end 2 inches before the opposite edges. And image will greatly help here.

5. The airplane is almost ready. Now the center cease must be folded to outside. 

6. Now fold both wings one inch from the center to form the airplane corpse and leave the wings square to it.

That's it. I know it's hard to understand by explaining, so visual guides can be found at the end of this article.

The "Moth" paper airplane.

This is another simple and well flying one.

1. Start with a square sheet of paper like with the Arrow.

2. Again make a single fold in the middle of the sheet.

3. We follow the same steps like with the arrow - make the diagonal folds to form a nose.

4. Here's the first difference. Thus formed triangle from the folded edges must be folded to the center of the airplane (so you'll have a rectangle with triangle in it).

5. Fold the new rectangle corners diagonally to the middle. This is similar to the folds you made in the Arrow, but these should end at the middle of the sides.

6. This forms a strange figure of the airplane - something like trapezium and a rectangle. The folded nose is now semi-covered by the last folds, so you need to turn it back to cover their edges and hold them.

7. The first cease now enters the game - fold the winds to form the airplane8. Now form the corpse. This time the wings should be folded a little bit diagonally because the Moth has shorter nose than tale.

That's it, the Moth is ready.

Each of these airplanes can be built in five minutes. The same is valid for most of the other paper model airplanes. The only thing that you need is a sheet of paper, skillful hands and of course good guides.