Group Films Launch of 200 Paper Planes From Edge of Space
- Posted on January 30, 2011 at 5:03pm by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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Now this is cool. A group of Brits, based in Germany, decided to try and break the world record for longest paper airplane flight. So they went about it in the most logical way: they built a weather balloon that can travel 22 miles above the earth’s surface and launched 200* paper airplanes from said balloon.
In order to track the planes, the group got even more creative. It had people upload messages on to memory cards that they then attached to the planes. When people find the planes, they insert the cards into their computers, view the messages, and then visit a website to relay the message and the plane’s location.
So far, planes have been reported in California, South Africa, and Canada, just to name a few. Below is video of the launch from January 19:
(H/T: FARK)
*The group’s website says it was planning on launching 100 planes, but in the video, and in other news reports, the number totaled 200. We’ve gone with the number the group gave at the launch.
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Comments (46)
JeanieinFl
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:29amI want to thank these guys for making my day!!!! I hope I find a plane!
Report Post »R Divincta
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:24amHummm…. Stuxnet virus by airmail. Now that’s creative.
Report Post »yanki161
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:23amDo any of them have a golden ticket?
Report Post »ancientgamer
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:13amSo Cool. Go Guys! Man, I’d love to find one of these.
Report Post »mickoo
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:06amOH NO found in California, now the EPA is on the job and we have to pay tax to play with paper airplanes, what do I tell my kid?
Report Post »harumph
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:03amMajor kudos to these guys. These planes could be all over the globe by now. How great would that be if a kid found one and it sparked a desire to study science and avionics?
Report Post »headsw2001
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:43amThat was awesome, they need to relaunch on a clearer day though.
Report Post »sapper
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:37amHomeland security will probably arrest them for global pollutants. Did the memory cards get patted down before their flight? Tickets for litter maybe…………
Report Post »afroggy
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:36amWell, it’s a neat idea. Having been in on the launch of a few high altitude balloons it’s nice to see it being done. I hate to be downer on this, but there is no way that one of those planes could have glided to South Africa or California. That’s a hoax, and a bit too “magical”.
I suppose it could have happened, but the probability is akin to monkeys flying out of one of my orifices. Considering that it is ~5,600 miles from Germay to California (and much farther than that with a prevailing westerly flow). Run the numbers yourself, and remember that it takes a jet 10+ hours to make the journey at 500+ miles per hour. My guess is that most of them ended up in Germany with a few beyond that. Otherwise, they’d have to show me how the reporting methodology worked to prevent scam reporting. It’s the same for South Africa.
Still it’s a fun project, and one that I might try since it is so low cost. I wouldn’t let some goofy reports take away from it, though their PR efforts shouldn’t have mentioned the outlier results.
Report Post »MJPinCO
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:03amOk but weren’t these launched considerably higher then most planes fly? How long would it have taken them to land back on earth? I don’t have any idea but if they got caught up in winds etc and took hours to return ??? Just wondering.
Report Post »knotaclu
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 1:16pm@ affroggy…yours was the 1st post that seem to have some scientific thought to it so let me ax you this. Yes, ax. That looked like a 2 x 4 attached to the balloon. What happens to a plane that were to slam into that? Did they have to have a permit of some sort to launch? Just wondering….
Report Post »MontanaRob
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:24amThis is the type of thing that many people used to do before the socialist inspired education system began dumbing down the populace. It is exactly the type of ingenuity that will be lost for good as this current trend of government growth will quash the life out of living.
Report Post »ShineTheLightBrighter
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:13amThey ought to be using this type of idea to explore the surfaces of the moon and other planets in our system with disposable flying cameras launched from space probes in the upper atmospheres. It would certainly cover a lot more area than the rover types and cost a lot less. Oops, how would NASA justify its bugets then??
Report Post »jburke4
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:09amWow, someone needs a girlfriend.
Report Post »knotaclu
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 1:12pmkind of like that beer commercial, how is it you’re still available…… Still pretty cool what they did….
Report Post »bobad
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:52amIf the US Government would have done the same project, it would have cost 15 billion dollars and took 10 years.
Report Post »jburke4
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 10:10amNot to mention the environmental studies.
Report Post »Dootuz
Posted on February 1, 2011 at 2:09pmand bureaucracy!!
Report Post »rmblount
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:48amWill this contribute to global warming?
Report Post »cinbu
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:44amThis is good old fashioned fun. I hope I find one in North Carolina!
Report Post »RABinMD
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:01amI am surprised that they weren’t fined for pollution.
Report Post »jackrorabbit
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 9:55amBetter hope they don’t land in DC, or they probably will.
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:46amNeat…..Go Guys
Report Post »banjarmon
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:44amNEAT….GO guys
Report Post »GunnyB
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:29amWell, it’s plain to see that this project was not only outside the envelope, but it was in fact a plane envelope that was out of this world. I’m sure that heaven played some role in this. Plane & simple.
Report Post »bbr48
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:21amHow fun. What a breath of fresh air to find this article and video. It would be a blast to find one of these planes. Well done guys.
Report Post »rabornmd
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:20amCould the paper of the planes be scanned for pollutants?
Report Post »saneasylum
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:20amGood news for a change… Are we being saturated with news in this New World of information? You decide !!!
Report Post »Ialmostforgot
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 7:51amWay cool! I hope I find a plane!!
Report Post »Airbornebob
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 7:45amSurprised there was no Government funding for this!!
Report Post »demsaredumb
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 7:27amFun to see something fun in the news
Report Post »CatB
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:14amLOL .. glad I read this .. I might have just thought it was garbage that had blown out of the neighbors recycling … I would love to find one ….(surprised they are not in trouble for “littering” lol)
Report Post »Old Truckers
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 11:38amThese guys are kind of crazy in a very fun way. Good job and I hope I find one.
Report Post »NeoFan
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 1:35pmSo what. Our government could do this for 78 billion dollars.
Report Post »chazman
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 4:14pmOne of those damn airplanes hit me in the eye! I checked out the memory card and it told me to go to hell! I’m gonna get those guys! Damn geeks …
Report Post »@leftfighter
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 4:16pmTBH, surprised nobody’s chimed in with “And this is news, why?” yet. Oh wait, page 2…
Report Post »returntoroots
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 6:16pmMake no mistake, I have no problem with this at all, and like many of you, I think it is a kind of fun story. I did however immediately think about EU and now US laws concerning e-waste. I’m not allowed to throw away my old calculator anymore, but these people were allowed to drop 200 memory cards around the world and into our oceans… pretty much for the heck of it. Not sure how this was approved in the EU. Seems to fly in the face of these regulations (pun intended). Again, I am not at all concerned about the pollution aspect of this, but couldn’t help thinking about the UN driven e-waste regulations. Not trying to spoil a fun story, just some food for thought.
Report Post »afroggy
Posted on January 31, 2011 at 8:09pmFor KnotACLU,
Here in the US we do a coordination(s) with the FAA and yes, ingesting a 2X4 at .80 mach ist nicht sehr guht fur das RB211. I don’t know what they do in Germany for coordination with ATC, but I would be very surprised if it wasn’t coordinated. In the US these “unmanned free balloons” need radar reflectors or coatings as well. I don’t think a 2X4 has a significant radar cross section so they must have different rules over there. It’s a big sky, so the odds are with you not hitting it. Actually, the big sky theory seems to protect us more than it hurts us.
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