How to Make the SkyTomahawk Paper Airplane

Fast, long range and tiny, the SkyTomahawk is a quick "drone cruiser" paper airplane made as a spiritual successor to the Super Tomahawk and simple to make complement to aircraft like the Super StarDragon and Simple Trekker.

The SkyTomahawk was developed to meet a design goal set by myself to use as few mounted parts as possible (usually wings and horizontal stabilizers). To this end, I decided to follow a tail design for the new aircraft similar to that of pmet's Cessna 172 replica. In addition, to make construction easier, I decided to make the horizontal stabilizers and vertical stabilizer shape the same. To reduce their area, the outer portions of the horizontal stabilizers were designed to be folded down perpendicular to the surface, becoming vertical stabilizers themselves. This trait gave the aircraft resemblance to the original Tomahawk and the Super Tomahawk which featured similar layouts. In addition, the wing design previously used by the variants of the Traveler was retained for commonality. When the prototype was made and tested, it showed itself off to be highly capable. Stability and speed were excellent, as was general handling; publication was soon approved as a result.

TAA USAF Designation: D391-1

Step 1: Materials

Required:
1 Piece of 8 by 10.5 inch graph paper

Tape

Scissors

Ruler

Pencil

Stapler

Step 2: Begin Construction

First, begin by folding your your graph paper in half (excluding three boxes on the perforated side). Once the paper has been folded appropriately, make two marks--12 full boxes apart (allow for a further box back behind the airframe). Use a ruler to make a straight line with the length of 12 boxes directly up 1 row of boxes from the two marks you just made. Then make the stabilizers, spars and counterweight as shown. To avoid confusion, one line you will cut along has been omitted from the photograph.

After the fuselage is made, take another sheet of paper that is folded in half along the lines of boxes. Mark out the wing as shown (1 box of constant chord at the root; a leading edge sweep of 1 box of chord decaying every 4 boxes outward from the constant chord box; and a trailing edge sweep of 1 box of decay along the 5 boxes of wingspan). This will complete the wings.

Solid lines indicate places to cut. Dotted lines indicate fold lines.

Note: 1 box = 0.25 inches

Step 3: Making the Fuselage

Cut out your fuselage and fold its counterweights into place. Cut along the solid lines and cut off the extra vertical fin where shown. Once this is done, fold along the vertical dotted line then fold the airplane in half along the center crease once again. Fold along the dotted horizontal line then tape where indicated.

Step 4: Applying the Wings; Stapling

Cut out your SkyTomahawk's wings and lay them beneath the fuselage. Apply tape where designated to secure them to the fuselage. Apply tape to the LERX joint and one staple where noted. This will complete the aircraft.

Step 5: Flight

The SkyTomahawk is a stable paper airplane and can be handled with ease. Launches should be done at moderate to high speeds at neutral attitude. Test flights should be conducted to check the aircraft. Additional applicable surfaces include slats, flaps, flaperons, elevators, ailerons, spoilers, spoilerons and trimmable rudders. Enjoy!