He Made Paper Airplanes His Full Time Job

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Listen to find strength in community on the MG journey on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. And we continue with our American Stories. Up next, we have the story of John Collins. He holds the Guinness World Record for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft at 226 feet, 10 inches.

To learn more about him, visit thepaperairplaneguy.com. Here's John sharing how he came to love paper airplanes so much that they are now his full-time career. I started probably about the age that most people start thinking about paper airplanes. You know, eight, nine made the same kind of, you know, basic dart design most people make. You fold the piece of paper in half and fold the corner down, you know, three more times and then, or two more times. So it's a total of three folds down and you end up with this kind of dart shaped plane that kind of flies.

It flies okay the first couple of flights and then it starts like unfolding itself and coming apart and the nose gets crunched and it's not a very good paper airplane. So we started kind of tinkering around, me and my brothers. I had three brothers around the same age and we would, you know, kind of tinker around with changing the design here or there. And then my mom knew how to do this really cool origami base called a water bomb base. And that's where you make a big X in the page and then flip it over and fold the other direction. And then this thing all collapses down into a triangle that's got, you know, flaps on top and center of gravity is automatically moved forward because you've got all these layers in the front of the plane.

It's just this magic base. I continually invent planes even to this day using this origami base, this water bomb base. How my mom knew how to do that, I have no idea. But she did know how to do that and showed it to us and, you know, and from that moment on, I was off and running on making paper airplanes. And I was just, I think, just a little bit better than my siblings at folding paper accurately and sharply and, you know, remembering folding sequences and stuff. And so I could see that this was a little bit of a success niche for me. You know, the world record idea came along pretty soon after I started folding a lot of designs. I started going, you know, pushing as far as I could with inventing, you know, folding techniques on my own and trying to figure stuff out. And then around the fourth grade, I think it was a substitute teacher brought an origami book in and she was going to lead the class through making an origami crane, which there's too many complicated things about an origami crane to get through that for a fourth grade class. And so, it was a complete and utter disaster.

She finally gave up and turned us loose for recess. But I got a look at this book. It was a book by Harbin and it had all of these things in it that I thought that I had invented and just done way better.

It was like the smart way to do it. You know, reverse folds and sink folds and pedal folds and all this, you know, this whole world of folding ideas and techniques and tools kind of opened up suddenly. And I started making planes with that. And I made planes for another, you know, 10 years using all these kinds of folding techniques and a little bit longer. And about the time that I had a really solid collection of planes and I felt really good about a couple dozen of these planes. At that point, I'm kind of starting to think that maybe a world record would be something to go after but I hadn't, you know, hadn't seriously considered, you know, finding a venue and doing all the things necessary to do it.

And it's kind of a big cumbersome undertaking. And so, it would really be like another 25 years before I really seriously was looking at, you know, who's selling more books? How could I make my book sell more? How do I get, you know, on it? How do I get to the top? How do I get to the A-League for this thing? And it turned out that the world record was kind of your way in.

This was the way you were gonna really prove that your stuff is the best, that you could, you know, get people to pay attention. I had all this hubris and I was pretty sure that all I need to do is find a guy who could throw really hard because, you know, I can throw okay. I could throw, you know, a hundred feet but to really throw hard, you know, to break the world record, I knew I was never gonna be able to throw that hard. So, finding somebody that could throw hard and watching them throw my planes, the planes pretty much just destroyed themselves with a really hard throw. And so, there was a very humbling experience watching what you thought was a great paper airplane, really get the stuffing thrown out of it.

It was like, ooh, yeah, this is a different thing than I thought here. This is gonna be a little more difficult. You assume that if you just find somebody who can throw hard, that's gonna be, you know, the task.

That's gonna be the real task. But the first guy that I worked with had such giant hands that you couldn't really tell how he was holding the plane. You know, he was grabbing it and throwing it really hard and you could, you know, the plane would go left and right. You know, he was kind of, you know, holding it too hard and kind of crunching it a little bit on the grip. And so, this was not gonna be the guy. You know, I couldn't really tell what he was doing with the planes.

The second guy who was a college guy, he was, I think he's still a coach for SF City College. He has such an explosive, snappy throw that he was actually ripping the plane in half. Quarterbacks kind of start with the ball pointed the opposite direction that they're gonna throw and then they spin, they twist their wrist and it's kind of an explosive, really quick moment. And so, this guy had such a snappy throw.

He was tearing planes in half and so I'm just like, there's gotta be somebody else. And so, then I found Joe, the guy who ended up being pretty much the perfect person to work with for paper airplanes because he had already changed his throw once for his sports. And so, he went from being a baseball pitcher to a football quarterback and in doing so, he changed his throwing mechanics to match the sport. So, Joe, not like these other guys were going, I know how to throw a football really hard and I'm gonna just throw the paper airplane like I throw the football. Joe approached it from, how do I throw the paper airplane hard? This is how I throw a baseball hard. This is how I throw a football hard. How do I throw a paper airplane hard?

And so, he just had this whole different kind of top-down idea that the other guys just didn't have. And so, he worked on launching, moving his elbow down so that the plane would be level when it launched and then worked on smooth acceleration because paper airplanes don't like going 90 miles per hour and they really don't like going from zero to 90 fast. And so, these were kind of two big keys that Joe worked on, you know, launch angle on release and let's accelerate as smoothly as we can to get as fast as we need to go. So the old world record for paper airplane distance was 207 feet and 4 inches.

That record holder held that record for a little less than 10 years, nine and a half years, which is almost, I think now that I'm thinking about it, it's about as long as I've held the record at this point that Joe and I have held the record. Steven Krieger and the two guys before him had both used a very particular kind of plane that you could think of more like a javelin. You could think of it like a ballistic dart. That plane would get thrown at a 45-degree angle.

It didn't matter whether it stayed right side up or upside down on the flight. And it really didn't fly so much as just travel in a straight line. Actually, we tried to throw that kind of a plane and Joe really couldn't throw a projectile that far.

And so, you know, a lot gets made of the idea that I used a thrower and people say, oh, you're riding a ringer and it's no, you know, no wonder you could break the old world record. Steven had a really good arm and he did it when he was 15. And I think you have more cartilage in your arm according to people who throw stuff. And so his arm was a little more flexible. Joe had told me a couple of times, hey, you know, if we had done it when I was 15, I probably could have thrown the projectile that far. But he couldn't at the age of 25 or 26, he couldn't throw a projectile that distance. And so we changed the kind of plane to a glider.

That ended up being a really great decision, but it makes it so much more difficult to control downrange. And so it became this real challenge of the accuracy and precision with which Joe could throw the plane and then the same sort of accuracy and precision with adjusting this glider to do different things at different speeds in the flight. That's where we really dialed this thing in. And you're listening to John Collins tell the story of how he came to break the Guinness World Record for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft. And I love this about Americans. We love our hobbies. We love our pastimes. And we love just, well, setting records, going faster and trying all kinds of things from the Wright brothers to John Collins.

Flight fascinates when we come back. The story of the paper airplane guy here on Our American Story. For each person living with myasthenia gravis, or MG, their journey with this rare neuromuscular condition is unique. That's why Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis, a new podcast from iHeartRadio in partnership with Argenics, is exploring the extraordinary challenges and personal triumphs of underserved communities living with MG. Host Martine Hackett will share powerful perspectives from people living with the debilitating muscle weakness and fatigue caused by this rare disorder. Each episode will uncover the reality of life with myasthenia gravis. From early signs and symptoms to obtaining an accurate diagnosis and finding care, every person with MG has a story to tell. And by featuring these real life experiences, this podcast hopes to inspire the MG community, educate others about this rare condition, and let those living with it know that they are not alone. Listen to Untold Stories Life with myasthenia gravis on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This July premium entertainments on us Xfinity Flex unlocks access to shows, movies and music so you can always try something new for free each week like singing hits with Stingray karaoke exploring shows from abroad with Acorn TV sampling everything available on max like season three of the righteous gemstones falling in love with pics from hallmark movies now and turning up with iHeartRadio's hit nation playlist discover new free content across the best streaming apps every week of the year no strings attached say free this week into your Xfinity voice remote what does it mean to be an AT&T black future maker it means you're a thinker culture shaper influencer activist entrepreneur black future makers are brave and committed individuals powering the possibilities for themselves and more importantly their communities they are their ancestors wildest dream pushing the culture forward they represent our future now creating greater possibilities for all from musicians producing the next signature sound to media mavens actors and one of my favorite award winning performers AT&T is honoring 15 innovators that will inspire you to dream in black who are they find out now connect with AT&T black future makers past and present by visiting at&t.com slash dream in black and we continue with our American stories and we've been listening to John Collins the Guinness World Record holder for the farthest flight by a paper aircraft at 226 feet and 10 inches by the way the old record of 207 feet 4 inches had been held for 10 years and he shattered it not even close back to John on how he attained this amazing feat Guinness rules are really specific about everything like paper size paper thickness you can use a little tiny piece of tape 25 by 30 millimeters you can cut that into as many pieces as you like ended up cutting into 16 pieces and putting it all over the plane they weren't specific about whether or not you personally had the designer had to throw the plane there was nothing in there about that and predictably the old world record holder did not like that idea which led to a bit of a kerfuffle he he complained enough that we wound up on the cover of the Wall Street Journal he was not happy with this idea of a designer thrower team but Guinness seemed to like the idea they thought it was cool they thought it you know it opens it up a little bit if you've got a great idea for a paper airplane but don't have a terrific arm there's no reason you should be locked out of this this competition it they thought it kind of broadened the idea and they were really happy to see a paper airplane fly across the distance goal as opposed to just crash into it that was really thrilling and if you watch the old world record plane you know takes about three seconds to go the distance my plane there's you know you watch it climb it rocks over the top and then flares and really flies I mean there's some drama just like is it gonna crash is it gonna stay on course you know takes nine seconds so there's there's definitely time to think about it you know if this thing is rocketing down course so and they liked all of that they liked the idea that that it was a designer thrower team they liked the idea that it was a glider instead of a dart and so I think you know Guinness loved this this new approach it wasn't a traditional approach by any means it was totally different it was unique and then there are unique things about the plane aerodynamically this is one of the well I can say it's the most sophisticated paper airplane I've ever designed even though it's just really simple folding the folding technique I get I can teach you how to fold this plane in 10 minutes but adjusting it to to get world record distance out of it is complicated and fascinating it turned out that around the same time NASA was doing experiments that would verify my suppositions about airflow and speed and you know this size wing so it ended up in a weird way getting verified all my all the things that I was thinking and dreaming up that were happening on the wing of the plane ended up being real I wasn't I wasn't just in Never Never Land you know we had good experimental evidence to to back up what I was thinking but it was really cool to have all that verified by by NASA well getting getting the world record was about a three-year journey for me and Joe was there my thrower was there for the last 18 months of that so he was there for a little bit over half of the three-year deal first glider that I folded ended up being the correct folding solution there's a lot of other adjusting that goes on but just just the folding solution the very first one out of the box was correct now the problem is you don't know that you still have to do all the testing all the permutations all the combinations all the testing to you know you can't know whether that's the right solution until you try all the other solutions and so it feels like it should be a lucky thing but is it you still have to do everything else it didn't it didn't cut down on the amount of work in the long run you still have to do all the other stuff we had made an unsuccessful attempt August of 2011 in this and the record was set in February of 2012 and so coming off that that August defeat you know my wife and other people were saying you know just take a break just think about it try something else you know they were kind of cautioning you know don't don't do this too quickly again because you know it's not just me failing for myself it's like you you know you drag all your friends out there and you know they go through the heartache of watching you try your best and just not quite get there and so anyway world record day at McClellan airfield was a whole different beast starting on January 1 as a matter of fact in this new hangar we didn't have a practice session where we didn't break the world record three out of ten tries you get ten tries and and you just have to break it on one of those throws but we were doing it three out of ten times very consistently once we you know really once I really figured out what's going on with the plane the drama wasn't whether we were going to break the record the drama for us was like how much are we going to break it by but given all that that you still have to do it that day with with the press there you know with the video cameras rolling with a guy that you've hired to do measuring because anything beyond 200 feet is not considered calibrated if it's a metal or cloth tape you got so you have to have a surveyor you hire a surveyor who can do a laser transit shot you've got three camera guys that you hire that hopefully get this thing recorded in one take because Guinness wants you know one unedited you know take for this thing and so you got to have great camera guys you got to have media coverage you got to have a surveyor you got to have judges that are qualified to do it and then you know you just you want to have you know friends and family around to have a little celebration so all of that pressure is you know no matter what kind of looming over the situation and so we take probably two throws earlier than we should have the throws one and two kind of probably pulled the trigger earlier than we should have throw three is very good and throw four we break the record and that you can listen to the video you don't even have to watch the video you can listen to the video and know that it's going to happen Joe releases it and right away I can tell it's going exactly where it should go you know I'm going you know that that's going to do it it flies up and goes over the top of that arc in exactly the same way that has our planes have broken the world record before and then starts its downhill run you can hear the crowd start to get excited as that plane starts to make a downhill run toward the finish line and then it lifts up with the last third to go and just goes flying across those rope lights that start lighting up and flashing and then the crowd goes nuts you know confetti cannons get fired we've done it throw number four totally successful the crowd goes nuts it's everything you would want out of a world record moment it's just it's it's a perfect moment you know it's something I'm incredibly proud of it took a lot of work and a different sort of work than I anticipated going in you know at the end of the day a paper airplane world record that doesn't save the world nobody lives or dies nobody gets rich nobody goes to the poorhouse it's just this kind of goofy kind of fun thing but even that kind of modest record world record idea attracts a certain amount of energy in a certain wave and it's a certain feeling that you can't really get the other way so I would you know if people are out there listening you wonder hey you know I'm pretty good at this should I try to you know should I go big or go home it's like go big is my advice you already know what it feels like to go home go big you'll learn so much about yourself you'll learn so much about your friends it's an important life moment whether or not you get it done doesn't matter just deciding to go big on something is that's important this opportunity for the last four or five years to be the paper airplane guy you know I mean I throw paper airplanes for a living nobody on the planet has a better gig than I've got even when I had a good job you know that I really liked I didn't like it as much as this it's just an incredible opportunity to meet you know young kids who want to learn a little something about paper airplanes and are curious about the science and and you're dealing with all these magical forces really you know invisible stuff you can't see you're dealing with gravity you're dealing with air thrust and drag and you can't see any of these this stuff and some of it you kind of have to just take on belief and so it's kind of I look at it as my job to sort of reveal you know the solid underpinnings of all these kinds of ideas and show them you know how it all works to create you know something that flies what a gift to get to be able to do that to be able to do this thing that I've been fascinated with you know the idea of something flying it since I was just tiny I mean I watch insects and birds and full-size airplanes and all these things fly and they use different ways to do it and get to pass along that passion that you know that fascination you know I've never lost track of the idea of how wondrous it is that things fly at all how did they manage to do it and then you know the idea that you could take probably one of the most modest resources on the planet just a sheet of paper and turn it into a flying machine that's totally cool and then the idea that you could transmit that knowledge to somebody else that they could then do it and figure out how to you know make a different one make an invent their own and that's that to me I love that moment when kids that I've worked with in the past send me a picture of a plane that they've invented that can do this really cool thing it becomes this magic object that not only flies but it came from them some part of them is now in this object and it has joined this magic world of flight as well so I get to do that that's what I get to do I don't know how you get a better job than that that's pretty good and great work as always by our creative team and our storytelling team and that's Faith and Robbie and Madison working on that piece and a special thanks to John Collins for sharing his passion and his story the paper airplane guy.com is where you can find him I love the way he described throw for me he's just back there in 2012 and the record is stood all this time folks beating the 10-year record that held before then the story of the world record holder for paper aircraft flight the story of John Collins here on Our American Story. 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