A YouTuber has achieved an aviation first but it’s unlikely his cardboard airplane will catch on. Peter Sripol managed to briefly slip the surly bonds earlier this week in a plane he claims is “95% cardboard.” As YouTubers do, Sripol posted a series of videos on the construction of his contraption, which ended up looking a little like a Zenith 801. With a tug from a car, he managed to get airborne and keep the plane under control at 3-5 feet AGL before plowing into some bushes. He did not appear to be injured.
Although most of the structure was made of sheets of cardboard glued and hot glued together, plywood was used at key structural points and ratchet straps served as lift struts. A computer-controlled laser cutter fashioned the ribs and other structural components. He adapted servos from RC aircraft for the flight controls and used a handheld radio control console to haul the thing off the turf. Comments on the video, which was posted earlier this month, put forward all kinds of helpful hints to propel the paper airplane forward.
Yay…
I saw this a couple of days ago and I can’t escape the suspicion he crashed it on purpose for more views. I like his projects but unless someone proves me wrong I’ll skip viewing his future work.
“ but unless someone proves me wrong”
How could someone possibly “prove you wrong”?
And, as a suspicion, is it proven?
OK, you got me. Unless someone points out how it’s otherwise illogical or shows evidence to the contrary….
Peter Sripol is an honest and amazingly creative inventor whose projects are all about having fun, while applying a deep knowledge of materials, electronics, and nonstandard construction details and ideas.
With 2.4 million subscribers he does not need to make fake videos for views. His sense of humor and integrity is what have gotten him to the success he has created.
Also, he’s way too smart to intentionally crash and airplane and risk hurting himself.
It’s too bad that some people feel the need to denigrate others accomplishments with little or no understanding of the issue or the person. Its so easy to express a negative attitude on the internet and makes you wonder what kind of person it is that immediately assumes the worst in people.
You possibly misunderstand me, Gary. I admire Peter Sripol and am grateful to the internet that feeds his projects. I made lots of cardboard wings to jump off roofs with when I was a kid, and I’m a model aviator, so I’m drawn to the diy homegrown approach. I just find the case he made of space and performance issues that led to the crash unpersuasive. If he really wanted to keep the plane, he’s smart enough to test the rate of turn in both directions and compare it to the available space for one thing.
Actually I found it upsetting that he ended up putting in the ditch, so I tried to figure out why. I noted zero climb when he said he was going to climb, notwithstanding his higher climb earlier in the flight. I saw him roll out of the left turn early when the reverse course was achieved, with what seemed like a lot of room left (hard to tell from the vid but let’s see his location tracking!). I saw him input down elevator right before impact. He could have gone waaay further to the right before the turn.
Then I noted that unsuspected crashes have lots more benefits to YouTubers than safe flights. So I raised the red flag.
Aviation at the entry level is supposed to be about having fun, this guy definitely had fun. Well done.
I guess when you need spare parts, you just order small stuff from Amazon, which always come shipped in large boxes, and then just use the boxes.
‘ just order […] from Amazon’ … or not.