Picture of Gyro Flyer
Make a cylindrical paper airplane!

This is one of the 48 projects for our Instructables: Made In Your Mind (IMIYM) exhibition at the Children’s Museum of Houston showing from May 26, 2012 - November 4, 2012. Produced in partnership with Instructables, IMIYM is an exhibit where families work together to build different fun, toy-like projects that help construct knowledge and skills related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics while instilling a “do-it-yourself” attitude in kids so they feel empowered to explore, tinker, and try to make things themselves. To learn more, check out the article here.

For this project, we've taken an Instructable created by someone else and modified it for use in the Museum. This specific project is based on the Flying Gyroscope Out of a Single Piece of Paper project by mspark400, but there may be others on Instructables that are also similar. Often, the materials and process for building our projects are designed for use with a large number of visitors (we see over 800,000 annually) and the need to ensure safety in a mostly non-facilitated environment. So, yes, many of these projects have room for improvement in both materials and methodology, which is PRECISELY what we want to encourage the kids to do. So please do share your ideas for improvement and modifications!
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Step 2: The Video

We offer optional video segments of each step for this project in the actual exhibit. Here is a compilation of all the steps.

Step 3: Step 1

Lay the piece of paper landscape (horizontal) on a flat surface. Fold the top edge of the paper to the bottom edge and unfold to create a crease.

Step 4: Step 2

Picture of Step 2
Fold the top edge of the paper to the crease.

Step 5: Step 3

Picture of Step 3
Fold along the crease.
TriKdAnG7 months ago
I also created a version of this aircraft because I don't like using tape.
If anyone doesn't like taping, checking my instructional video.

Link here:
EWSP1 year ago
You are grate......................
I've made cylindrical airplanes out of aluminum cans.
You cut it in half, using the top part only. Then, take a can opener and cut of the top of your can. Mine fly really well.
Very interesting. Do you have images/video or, better yet, an instructable?
Nope not yet. I'll tell you when I post it.
ImageMaker2 years ago
If you go through almost the same folding procedure, but cornerwise on a square sheet of paper, you can make a circular glider does doesn't require spin for stability -- a crease that winds up on the inside bottom produces and effective elevator, and the concentration of mass at the center of the folded portion (due to the corner landing in the middle) lowers the center of mass enough for the shape to provide dihedral stability. The resulting glider flies very well and is much easier to throw (especially for children and the sport-challenged) than this model -- flow from a high place, it can glide for blocks.
I can't quite picture what you are describing. How about pictures? Sounds interesting.
I finally got around to making an instructable of the glider I'm talking about: find it at
Very cool idea! Do you have an instructable to link to? We'll give this one a try here in the offices (and possibly set off another round of air attacks :-)
Nope, but I could probably make one fairly promptly. It's only been about twenty years since I folded one. Let me shoot a few photos and see what I can come up with.

This is a great instructable so I hope I'm not raining on the parade too much by saying it can't be flying because of the lift effect of the air going over the wing. It is symetrical so any lift on one bit of the thing would be matched by the exact opposite lift from the bit the opposite side that is the other way up.

I suspect the folding is needed to give the paper enough strength so you can throw it. Just a cylinder of paper with no folding would be really hard to throw or give spin to.
That's what I was thinking as well. I agree that the weight at the front is key to giving it suffient concentrated mass and to help with the gyroscopic motion that helps keep it level. However, there is definitely some lift being generated, as it definitely flies further than if a similar force were applied to just a piece of paper and I suspect the shape and the motion of the shape through the air are a cause of the lift. I am unsure of the actual mechanics (which is why I was vague about it) as I am having trouble finding a simple explanation for why it has lift.

When I looked up resources online to try to get some more info about why it (or the X-ylo toy) fly, I found this thread on the physics forums with some speculation that matched my own:

The X-zlo creators' website ( claims there is no concensus on how it works.

While looking up the above website links, I just spotted a book by David Landon Tarr called "What Makes the Amazing X-zylo Fly" ( which, based on the Amazon preview, reads at times more like his opinion, but in reading the preview, some of the physics being discussed are a bit beyond my ability to understand at the quick glance, so that may be a resource to explore the physcis more deeply.

Hope that helps! If anyone has read the book and can provide a better explanation, I'd really appreciate it!
I have actually studied this kind of wing before with one of my aerospace engineering classes. It actually does create lift directly from the wing, and the symmetry actually contributes to the lift.

Where you are probably being confused is most wings have an asymmetric airfoil. This means that the plane prefers to fly right side up, and while it can generate lift upside down, it is usually not efficient and can stall easily.  Typically airfoil asymmetry is used to increase the "flat plate lift approximation" in lager airplanes. The flat plate lift approximation is basically the idea that if the wing gets small enough there is little difference between a flat plate and an airfoil. This is why most paper planes work at all.

An aerobatic planes wing is symmetric in that it looks the same upside down. It relies on the "angle of attack" to create lift. The angle of attack is the angle between the oncoming air and the "chord" (an imaginary line that runs from the leading edge to trailing edge).

Because of the symmetry, both the top of the circle and the bottom of the circle create lift the same way a biplanes wings do, and the sides of the circle function as rudders.

Your foil acts like a symmetric foil. The folding you did only increased the stiffness of the leading edge and provided a convenient way to create the loop. Without it, it would be a very flexible (and unstable) structure that wouldn't fly far.

There have actually been some planes in history that have used this shape of wing successfully, although they never made it to production. Among them is the french Coloeptere

By spinning the structure you are invoking precession. Precession is what keeps your wing from immediately stalling and falling (think gyroscope). It also helps the wing keep its circular geometry as it flies. Modern intercontinental missiles also spin to take advantage of the same effect. 

Hope this explanation helps.  I used technically correct jargon in places so if a term is unfamiliar you should be able to "Wikipedia" it.
Nyxius Nyxius2 years ago
I found a cool visual that illustrates how asymmetric airfoils work.
GREAT EXPLANATION! Thanks so much for that help and the cool visual!
e5frog2 years ago
Excellent little project, flies surprisingly well and no sharp edges in front - great!
Thanks! Glad you liked it!
rread2 years ago
I love X-zylo, And I've made these in the past with my son... a great toy.
I may well be incorporating some of this tech into later high altitude horizontal versions of this
Sounds ambitious! Please keep us informed!
Tumunga2 years ago
I just hit a co-worker in the head with the one I made. THANKS!!
That is a hysterical measure for success! Love it! You may also want to try my Paper Mini-Rockets project:
deanmackey2 years ago
Not bad! I have a video of the style I make, and there is also a video of the flying crown I make as well.

and in case you need any more paper airplane ideas,

If you need any more ideas, or want a paper airplane expert to visit your museum, just let me know!
dean :)
Excellent, thank you! I'll make sure to pass on your info to our Visitor Programs Educator.
Kiteman2 years ago
Oh, snap!
My apologies that I did not see your project and therefore did not mention it in our introduction. Your project is obviously very similar and had it come up in our search, I would have mentioned it above. I like the process you chose, as it forces you to start with a thinnger paper than we do. It would be an interesting experiment to explore how these three different techniques affect the flight of the end product. Again, my apologies for not mentioning you or anyone else who also has posted a similar project. Thanks so much for pointing it out.
No apologies needed, just having fun.

I'm part way through turning this into a Jubilee science investigation - they'll be shaped like small crowns, and they'll be comparing size to range. Could be quite educational.
Very cool. Please keep up informed!
I've PMed you a worksheet.
The investigation went quite well, although the more skilled throwers had to work elsewhere, since they kept throwing the crowns the full length of the lab and hitting the wall.
FrodoandSam2 years ago
Mine flys excellently!
Glad to hear it! Do you have a photo you can share?
FrodoandSam2 years ago
Really Cool
wilgubeast2 years ago
This is a great project, but your main image is a little on the dark side. Do you have any other photos of the final product? If not, this is still an excellent project, but I'm worried people won't ever click through to find out.
I'll change it out. Thanks!

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