World's largest paper plane takes to the skies

The 'Great Paper Airplane Project' was organised by the PIMA Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona and involved the launch of the world's largest paper airplane.

This amazing feat of engineering measured 45 feet (13.7m) long with a wingspan of 24 feet (7.3m) and was named the 'Desert Eagle'. It was fabricated from Falcon Board, a form of corrugated cardboard, and weighed 800 pounds with a design based an award winning normal-sized paper airplane, created by a 12-year-old Arturo Valdenegro, which was entered in the museum's fly-off competition.

This design was then adapted by one of the designers of the B-2 Stealth Bomber, Art Thompson, and to launch this amazing plane the 'Desert Eagle' was towed into the air by a helicopter to a height of 2,700 feet and released.

It flew for a total of about ten seconds and reached speeds of up to 100mph (161 km/hr) before crash landing as a result of stress on its tail.

Have a look at the video below to see the flight.