Most of us started building paper airplanes when were kids. In case you missed out, here’s some quick instructions.
Or maybe you want to get fancy and make something like this.
Or maybe you’d like to dedicate years of your life to constructing a 1/60th scale model Boeing 777 with realistic retractable landing gear and moving wing flaps.
That’s what a designer named Luca Iaconi-Stewart has been doing. Using just folded manila file folders and glue, he’s created a paper airplane that’s mind-blowing in its attention to detail.
He’s been working on the model for almost ten years, and what he’s been able to create is nothing short of astounding. Iaconi-Stewart says the project started as a school assignment, but soon turned into something more, something much much more.
It now includes:
Moving flaps on the wings:
Miniature lamps over the seats in first class:
And complex landing gear that are made to fold up into the plane:
Perhaps more amazing then all the hours spent cutting and gluing is the fact that Iaconi-Stewart isn’t working from any plans. He researches and designs all the parts himself. He even has a tub full of parts that didn’t work and had to be removed. He jokingly refers to it as “The plane crash.”
“I really enjoy the sense of calm and meditation that it brings when I really get into the building process,” the designer told WIRED.
But that isn’t the only benefit he’s derived from working on the plane. He was also recently asked to help create an advertisement for Singapore Airlines, which shows off his signature attention to detail.
And he got a tour of a Boeing facility where they were constructing an actual 777. “I actually got really up close to these planes and that was an amazing experience.” he said, “Their assembly line is a feat of engineering.”
And if anybody would know a feat of engineering when he sees, it’s this guy.
H/T WIRED