How to make a dart paper airplane
Dart Paper Airplane (Classic Dart): try all 9 steps in the 3D player. Turn and replay every move. Print the complete diagram sheet or save it as PDF.
The classic dart: a sheet of letter paper, a sharp nose and two wings, ready to fly across the room.
- You need
- One sheet of letter paper (A4 works too). No glue or scissors.
- Start
- Lay a sheet of letter paper in front of you, short edge at the top.
- Tips
- Crease every fold sharply with a fingernail: a crisp nose flies straighter.
- If the plane dives, bend the back edges of both wings up a little.
Your model is ready
Hold the plane under the body and throw it gently forward.
Step-by-step diagrams
- 1
Crease the middle
Fold the paper in half from left to right, crease it sharply, and open it again.
- 2
Fold the left corner in
Fold the top left corner down so the top edge lies along the center crease.
- 3
Fold the right corner in
Fold the top right corner the same way, so the two meet at the center crease.
- 4
Fold the left edge in
Fold the new slanted left edge to the center crease, making the nose sharper.
- 5
Fold the right edge in
Fold the slanted right edge to the center crease the same way.
- 6
Fold in half
Fold the plane in half along the center crease, the folds you made on the outside.
- 7
Fold the first wing down
Fold the top wing down from the nose, so its slanted edge meets the bottom edge of the body.
- 8
Fold the second wing behind
Fold the other wing back along the same line, so it matches the first wing.
- 9
Open both wings
Spread both wings away from the body along their creases. Leave a shallow V, with both tips a little higher than the roots. Then turn the plane upright, keel below.
- ✓
Finish
Hold the plane under the body and throw it gently forward.
Fold next
Heart ↗
This heart stays flat, so it fits inside a greeting card or on the front of a folded note. The colored side makes the face; small folds hidden behind the left edge, right edge and two top tips soften the outline.
Corner bookmark ↗
Make a folded pocket that slips over the corner of your book page.
Newspaper hat ↗
The folded paper hat from a sheet of newspaper: a peak, a brim, and it fits a child's head from a full newspaper page.
Cicada ↗
The traditional helmet-base cicada, with two long wings and a white V below its head.