High-flying and handsome
paper planes were designed and built
by our three champion
kid engineers
Star-Bulletin Staff
Kyle Shimabukuro |
Jayce Mitsuka |
Charisse Tanabe |
Perhaps there's a future airplane designer like Bert Rutan or Orville Wright or Glenn Curtiss in Hawaii's elementary schools. While we didn't get a mighty fleet of entries in our KO Paper Pilots airplane contest, most of them, even the mutt-ugly ones, could fly. Or at least dive headlong in a straight line.
Star-Bulletin
Kyle's plane.
First, they were judged on how they flew. Airplanes rely on thrust, lift and control to fly. A nice flat glide ratio without pitching - that up-and-down movement that indicates a shifty center of gravity - was essential. It takes balance.
The traditional dart-shaped paper airplane can go quickly and directly from one place to another without much trouble, but that's not flying. That's hurtling under control. A good-flying paper airplane seeks to soar and wander, and these flight characteristics can be quantified and objectively tallied up.
Star-Bulletin
Jace's plane.
Second, the cool ways they were decorated. This is entirely subjective. It took both sides of our brains to come up with winners.
The winner in the older kids group was Kyle Shimabukuro, 9, who's in fourth grade at Maukalani Elementary in Makakilo. His design was very origami-like, with geometric designs, and flew wonderfully, like a sea gull riding a thermal.
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Charisse's plane.
In the middle kids group was Jace Mitsuka, 6, who's in first grade at Nuuanu Elementary. A colorful representation of a fictional airline, complete with happy passengers, Jace's paper airplane had the startling design feature of floppy wings that tilted upward at a slight angle in flight, giving the airplane stability.
In the small-kind kids category, Charisse Tanabe, 4, in pre-school at Wai-Kahala KCCA, also went with an origami-like design, scrumble-painted so that it looked like a rich kimono.
The three winners and most of the runners-up - fliers-up? - are now on display at the Pacific Aerospace Museum at Honolulu Airport through March 15.
© 1997 Honolulu Star-Bulletin
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