<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In Popular Mechanics there was an article many years ago about the Channel Wing:\u00a0 a propeller plane where the propellers were mounted above curved portions of the wings to draw the air over the wing.\u00a0 It was called the Custer Channel Wing for its inventor.\u00a0 Several models were built; the performance was so astonishing no one really believed it.<\/p>\n

Here<\/a><\/p>\n

and here<\/a><\/p>\n

These are the two articles in Popular Mechanics.\u00a0 I tried to make a paper airplane that duplicated the Custer Channel Wing, and it flew pretty well.\u00a0 One day I realized that some really good paper for this would be uncirculated dollar bills; folding money.\u00a0 These fly really well, are very difficult to fly straight, and a lot of fun.<\/p>\n

To make one, fold a new dollar in half, unfold, then fold lengthwise in half the other way, unfold. \u00a0 The center lengthwise fold is valley, the short fold is mountain.\u00a0 Fold over an eighth-inch on the long edge.\u00a0 Fold this over, and over and over.\u00a0 Do this slowly, making sure the folds are parallel.\u00a0 With a little luck, the last fold is the lengthwise one; if not, the lengthwise fold will show up as a line on the built-up leading edge.<\/p>\n

Now fold the dollar in half.\u00a0 Roll up one side with a pencil.\u00a0 Flip it around and roll up the other side with a pencil.\u00a0 Now smooth out the plane, snap it a few times, shape the curves so they match.\u00a0 Sometimes a bit of curl on the trailing edge (up elevator) in the center of the curve makes a big difference.<\/p>\n

To throw, grasp the plane from the rear (Thick end forward, thin end back) lightly gripping the center fold.\u00a0 Push forward and release.\u00a0 This plane flies fast!\u00a0 Very fast and very flat glide.\u00a0 I’ve measured 10 to 1 on occasion.\u00a0 You should be able to fly twenty to thirty feet if you have the room.\u00a0 If you fly it indoors, it will land under and hide behind furniture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Popular Mechanics there was an article many years ago about the Channel Wing:\u00a0 a propeller plane where the propellers were mounted above curved portions of the wings to draw the air over the wing.\u00a0 It was called the Custer Channel Wing for its inventor.\u00a0 Several models were built; the performance was so astonishing no […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":118,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113\/revisions\/118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/howardfink.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}