Duo’s paper airplane seizes Guinness World Records status
Video: Boeing engineers’ handmade airplane shatters a record by flying nearly the length of an American football field.
BNN
Video by Dillon Ruble using footage from the world record attempt. All video footage, drone footage and pictures were taken by the record team (Garrett Jensen, Nathan Erickson and Dillon Ruble) as well as Dominic Alberico.
It’s a classic activity everyone learns during their childhood. Fold a piece of paper into an airplane and send it soaring into the sky with a flick of the wrist.
Boeing engineers Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen grew up folding paper airplanes, but never thought they would one day break world records.
A prototype paper airplane.
As second- and third-generation Boeing employees, Jensen and Ruble vividly remember attending company Family Day events as children.
“We would fold paper airplanes back then as a fun childhood activity,” Ruble said. “Origami, or the art of folding paper, became a long-term passion.”
That passion ignited a dream, one that would become record-breaking reality for the duo.
“It was hard to believe,” Ruble said. “It was one of those moments: Is this real?”
Ruble and Jensen, along with the support of Nathan Erickson, made history on Dec. 2, 2022, in Crown Point, Indiana, for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft.
Nathan Erickson (from left), Dillon Ruble and Garrett Jensen made history on Dec. 2, 2022, in Crown Point, Indiana, for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft. (Dominic Alberico photo)
“We hope this record stands for quite a while — 290 feet (88 meters) is unreal,” Jensen said. “That’s 14 to 15 feet (4.2 to 4.6 meters) over the farthest throw we ever did. It took a lot of planning and a lot of skill to beat the previous record.”
Ruble and Jensen are from St. Louis and studied Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Missouri S&T in Rolla. Today, they are engineers for Boeing. Their design was inspired by hypersonic aerospace vehicles and they practiced for four months before making their attempt.
The pair of flags represents the previous record mark of 252 feet, 7 inches (77 meters) set by the team from Malaysia and South Korea. If a plane landed close to this mark or beyond, Ruble and Jensen would then measure it.
“We tried to mimic the design of various hypersonic vehicles, which travel at speeds over Mach 5 (five times the speed of sound). So, we decided to call our plane Mach 5,” Ruble said.
The team broke the previous record of 252 feet, 7 inches (77 meters) achieved by a trio from Malaysia and South Korea in April 2022. Prior to that, the record had not been broken since 2012, when Joe Ayoob and paper airplane designer John M. Collins flew a paper airplane that reached a distance of 226 feet,10 inches (69 meters).
“It really put things on the map and it’s a really proud moment for family and friends,” Ruble said. “It’s a unique story to tell at this point, especially working for Boeing. It’s a good tie in to aerospace and thinking along the lines of designing and creating prototypes.”
Ruble and Jensen studied origami and aerodynamics for months, putting in 400 to 500 hours of creating different prototypes to try to design a plane that could fly higher and longer.
“For the Guinness World Records, we ended up going with A4-sized paper (dimensions of 210 x 297 mm) and went up to the maximum for weight, 100 grams per square meter,” Jensen said. “The heavier the paper, the greater the momentum when you go to throw it.”
Top: During the setup phase, surveying team members Jeremy O'Brien (foreground) and Pat Nejman work to calibrate and properly configure equipment to take accurate measurements. Above: Lead Surveyor Glen Boren (from left, wearing neon), Fire Chief Mark Baumgardner (wearing red), Garrett Jensen (pointing and explaining the rules to both official witnesses), and Dillon Ruble and Nathan Erickson (both setting up the table).
It takes over 20 minutes to accurately fold the record-breaking paper airplane design.
“Our design is a little different from your traditional fold in half, fold the two corners to the middle line down the middle. It’s pretty unique in that aspect. It’s definitely an unusual design,” Ruble said.
On the day of the attempt, they achieved the record on the third throw.
Nathan Erickson (background from left) and a spectator watch the flight as Dillon Ruble throws the world record paper airplane. (Dominic Alberico photo)
“We found the optimal angle is about 40 degrees off the ground. Once you’re aiming that high, you throw as hard as possible. That gives us our best distance,” Jensen said. “It took simulations to figure that out. I didn’t think we could get useful data from a simulation on a paper airplane. Turns out, we could.”
Dillon (from left) and Nathan fold world record paper airplanes with both witnesses overseeing. The witnesses were Mark Baumgardner (wearing red), fire chief, and Glen Boren (wearing neon), lead surveyor.
Their advice to fellow dreamers and doers: “Find a project you are passionate about. Find a source of inspiration within the aerospace field and learn as much as possible,” Ruble said. “Embrace working hard at it, too. That’s what our team did. We put our heads down and tried to advance the typical paper airplane.”
The surveying team, witnesses and record team pose for a photo after the professional surveying team’s confirmation of the Guinness World Records throw. Foreground, from left: Dave Negrete, Glen Boren, Doug Rettig, Greg Howarth, Nathaniel Erickson, Dillon Ruble, Garrett Jensen, Dominic Alberico, Jeremy Bovee. Back row, from left: Dontrell Harris, Mike Plumb, Doug Rhein, Phil Mowers, Jeremy O'Brien, Pat Nejman, Nick Dziubczynski, Rich Hudson, Mark Baumgardner Jr., Joel Janowski.
By Mychaela Kekeris
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