Students Hope to Eventually Launch Paper Airplane from 17 Miles above Earth’s Surface
On May 4, 2012, at 11:15 a.m., select Lehman High School students will make their first test flight in an effort to break the Guinness Book of World Records record for the highest altitude paper plane launch. The students will try to lift a 5-pound payload with a high-altitude balloon above 89,591 feet – the current world record for the airplane launch. Though the Lehman Radio Club and journalism students – the groups who are participating – don’t anticipate trying to launch a paper airplane until sometime next school year, the test flights they conduct are critical opportunities to gather data and learn about space flight. In March, teachers Ross Russell, Judy Cooper, and Elaine Hunt were able to get a small balloon about 86,500 feet off the ground while exploring the feasibility of the making the effort a classroom project.
The students were inspired by a 2009 science contest called PARIS, or Paper Aircraft Released Into Space, which was sponsored by The Register, a British science and technology website, to spur interest in private space flight technology development. The word “space” in the project’s name referred to near space, not outer space, since it was not planned to launch a paper airplane above the 62 mile boundary line of outer space.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, “On 28 October 2010, at a location about 120 miles west of Madrid, Spain, a team of British space enthusiasts launched a paper plane into space from a helium balloon at an altitude of 89,591 feet (27,307.39 m) or 17 miles above the earth’s surface. The plane, Vulture 1, had a wingspan of three feet, was made of paper straws, covered in paper and it took a year to construct. The balloon was equipped with two cameras and tracker devices, and both plane and balloon were retrieved intact about 100 miles from the launch site.”
Meet the Lehman students at the May 4th test flight and follow them on their quest to break the world record!
