You’ve probably enjoyed making paper airplanes for fun.  But did you know that scientists also use paper airplanes to study flight, aerodynamics, and even space travel?

Scientists in Japan are actually working on a paper airplane that could fly all the way from outer space back to earth!  Astronauts have teamed up with origami experts to design a paper airplane for this project.  They hope that this experiment will teach them more about designing light weight spacecrafts that can successfully re-enter Earth’s atmosphere.  

You can watch video of the paper airplanes being tested in a wind tunnel at Discovery’s website.

http://www.discoverychannel.ca/reports/Article.aspx?aid=6514

Hopefully all of this has inspired you to try out your own amazing paper airplane design!

You can find loads of paper airplane designs here: http://www.funpaperairplanes.com/index.html. This site also has information on the principles of flight and aerodynamics, so you can also learn about the science behind your designs!