The Guinness World Record flight for "longest indoor distance flown by a paper airplane" has been broken. On Feb. 26, former college football quarterback Joe Ayoob threw a paper airplane that soared almost the entire length of a hangar at McLellan Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif. The fold piece of paper covered a distance of 226 feet, 10 inches, or three-fourths of the length of a football field.
The paper airplane flight beat the previous world record of 207 feet, 4 inches, set by Stephen Kreiger in 2003.
The record-setting plane was folded by John Collins, the self-proclaimed "Paper Airplane Guy." Collins has been designing paper planes since childhood and has studied origami, the Japanese art of paper folding. He shares his knowledge and appreciation for paper airplanes through demonstrations at craft fairs, as well as his website and YouTube channel.
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Ayoob, who played quarterback for two seasons at Cal, told ESPN that throwing paper airplanes requires skill and training. "A lot of people could throw this plane and get some pretty crazy distance out of it," he said. "But in order to achieve the distances we were trying to reach, it took a pretty precise throw, and it took a lot of strength. ... There's a lot of finesse involved, so it's kind of blending power, balance and control while you're throwing this fragile, little paper airplane."
Collins told ESPN that he foresees a challenge from Kreiger, the previous record holder, which could lead to a friendly arms race between the world-class paper plane folders. "I think it's on," Collins said. "Game on!"
