https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36087442 (2 months ago, 79 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32134691 (1 year ago, 96 comments)
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18249755 (5 years ago, 208 comments)
Isn't it the other way around?
If the surfaces are in the front of cg/cl, they need to do the opposite. To pull the nose up, they would have to point downwards.
Concorde worked this way [1], and called them 'elevons'. When I used to work on Tornados these were called 'tailerons'.
[1] https://www.heritageconcorde.com/roll-pitch-and-yaw
Edit: The original site actually describes them correctly here, so I assume the text on the front-page is just a typo: https://www.foldnfly.com/lounge/steer-aim.php#elevon
Is there something about the aerodynamics of paper planes that I don’t understand? Probably!
What I came up with involved construction paper taped to a bendy straw. The main wing was folded (but not creased) into an airfoil shape and attached to the long bit of the bendy straw. The short bit had paper elevators and rudder attached. By bending the straw I could set the plane to fly straight when thrown, or to turn, climb, or dive. It all worked pretty much according to plan and was one of my prouder childhood play moments. My wife laughed when I told her this and said it sounded like something her brother might do (a high compliment, as her brother is brilliant).
It would have to be an indoor competition where a machine throws the paper planes.
I would be super curious which design wins.
https://www.redbull.com/us-en/events/red-bull-paper-wings-wo...
https://www.cnn.com/videos/sports/2022/05/17/red-bull-paper-...
Though it doesn't look like its consistent (there was one in 2022, but nothing from May of this year).
I bought a paper airplane launcher as one of those gag desk toys back when working in a cubicle farm. The <$5 spent was well worth the goof off slack time it gave us for a week. For a few days, people were folding all sorts of different designs. After that, it just sat there unused and unthought about. But it was fun for the ~week
