How did you make the planes fly in the movie?
Most of the time when you see the competitors throw paper planes they’re real planes. And it’s the same when they land. Each actor had to learn how to make their character’s signature plane too. When the planes are moving through the air we often used special effects. It would have taken too long to shoot the planes flying in real life, although there are a few times where we used the actual planes flying, like when Dylan and Kevin are on top of the caravan in the backyard, or when Dylan is practising with Mr Hickenlooper in the school hall. We also used an octocopter. It looks like a very small helicopter and can carry the camera hundreds of metres into the air.
How did you choose the kids who acted in it?
Luckily my wife, Jane Norris, is one of Australia’s leading casting agents so she knows what’s going on in the acting world and was able to find the kids for the movie. They all had to do screen tests to see if they were right for the roles and if they worked well together. Ed Oxenbould, who plays Dylan, had been on television shows like Puberty Blues and in other movies, like Alexander and the Horrible, Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day, so we were lucky he had a bit of spare time to act in Paper Planes.
What’s a day on set like for Ed who plays Dylan?
Ed’s first day on set was pretty full-on. We were filming the first scenes with Clive and the temperature was 40 degrees. Ed had to ride his BMX bike up a hill to Clive’s tree, time and time again. By the end he was very hot and tired! The scenes are amazing and I’m really happy with what we shot that day, but it was demanding for Ed. He’s a very professional actor and whenever I called action he always gave one hundred per cent. It’s a pretty full-on experience for a young guy because we often work long hours, but it’s also a lot of fun.
Was it dangerous making the film?
Not really. We did discover that a brown snake lived under the house we were filming in, so we had a snake wrangler on set to keep a look out for it in case it decided to slither out. Brown snakes are very deadly! Then one day I discovered the snake wrangler was showing all the young actors her snake collection. She’d brought them to set! She was meant to be keeping snakes away from us, but there they were.
Will there be a sequel to Paper Planes ?
We hope so! The movie will need to be a success for that to happen but we would love to spend more time with the characters and see what other kinds of adventures Dylan might have. And we’ve had a lot of interest about what happens next for Kevin too, so hopefully we will get to make another one.
JACK – Sam Worthington
DYLAN – Ed Oxenbould
MAUREEN – Deborah Mailman
KIMI – Ena Imai
JASON – Nicholas Bakopoulos-Cooke
KEVIN – Julian Dennison
GRANDPA – Terry Norris
MR HICKENLOOPER – Peter Rowsthorn
PATRICK – David Wenham
There’s something about the way a paper plane flies that can’t be explained, that can’t be rationalised – it has to be shown, it has to be experienced. There’s just something special about creating an object from paper and making it fly.
We are Dylan Parker and James Norton, and we are The Paper Pilots – the only two in existence so far. But we’re going to change that. We’re setting out to train the best Paper Pilots around, and that’s you!
In 2009 we met at a small paper plane competition at our local university and we’ve been friends ever since. We fold together and we fly together. In fact, in 2009 we travelled to the World Paper Plane Championships in Austria, something that inspired Robert Connolly to make the movie Paper Planes. Dylan even took home third place for Australia in the distance category of the competition. Over the last six years we have spread the love for paper planes across Australia by taking our show on the road.
We had so much fun working on Paper Planes; we’ve been there every step of the way, designed all of the planes you see in the movie and made almost all of the planes that take Dylan, Kimi and Jason on their journey to Tokyo to compete in the world championships.
We’re now going to give you a few tips and tricks on folding and throwing the best paper plane ever. First you need to know about flight, then about folding a great plane and finally a bit about throwing techniques.
BASIC FLIGHT
Flight requires three things – lift (the design of the plane will handle this), thrust (your powerful arm and throw) and drag (that’s the force of the wind against the plane as it moves forwards in the air). BUT, there’s one more thing people sometimes forget – GRAVITY! It’s what brings your plane back down to Earth; it’s what makes it fall. You have to use a combination of the first three things to try to beat it. More lift, a bigger throw and less drag are the key.
GOOD DESIGN
There are instructions on how to fold one of our fabulous designs in this book to help you out, but a few other things to know:
1. Remember to angle the wings up to make a Y-shape from the back. This helps lift and keeps the plane stable.
2. Always make sure the folds are really sharp, tight and smooth as this helps to reduce drag.
THE THROW
Are you ready?
Stand side on with your non-throwing arm pointed in the direction you’re going to throw. Bend your knees then push up and outwards with your throwing arm, careful to flick your wrist as you release the plane. Don’t throw too hard, be graceful and never be afraid to try again if you don’t get it right the first time!
Once you’ve mastered your first plane you should go forth and discover more designs, more planes and more places to throw them. Remember to pick up after yourself though; no one likes a litterbug.☺
Happy flying and blue skies to you all!
Here are some simple folding instructions for a great paper plane design from The Paper Pilots. Can you make the best paper plane ever?
FOLDING INSTRUCTIONS
1. Fold the sheet of A4 paper in half lengthwise then unfold it so the crease faces upwards – this is called a valley crease because it looks like one!
2. Fold the top corners down to the centre crease to create a point.
3. 10 mm below where the corners meet, fold the tip down.
4. Measure halfway down the centre crease and mark the half point with a pencil. Fold the top corners down to the point you’ve just marked as shown on the diagram. There will be about 27 mm of the tip still visible.
5. Fold the visible tip up. This is called the Nakamura lock. Then fold the plane in half down the centre crease so the Nakamura lock is on the outside.
6. Fold one wing up. The crease should be 10 mm from the front of the plane and 20 mm from the back of the plane.
7. Turn the plane over and fold the second wing down on the other side.
8. Your plane will now look like this! And that means it’s a pretty awesome flying wedge. There’s a little bit more to do and then it’ll be finished!
9. Flatten out the plane so the Nakamura lock faces down. Fold the nose back in small increments of 4 mm. Do this three times.
10. Remake the earlier folds and pinch the centre of the plane together. Make sure the wings are tilted up at 19 degrees and then you are finished! If you’re not sure how much 19 degrees is, use a protractor.
TRIMMING INSTRUCTIONS
Once the plane is finished you can adjust it for flight – this is called trimming.
1. Test the plane by gently throwing it forward. The aim is for the plane to float smoothly to the ground. Make adjustments if it doesn’t.
2. If the nose drops and the plane dives into the ground, bend up the very back of the wings. A little bend does a lot so make the adjustments small!
3. If the nose rises first and then the plane drops, bend down the back of the wings.
When you have trimmed the plane so it floats gently to the ground then you can throw it further and faster!
Paper has been around for almost 2000 years! It was invented in China in about 105
CE.
It’s thought that paper kites and gliders originated in Ancient China and Japan, hundreds of years before modern aeroplanes designed to carry people were invented.
Folding paper into patterns and shapes, like animals, is usually called ‘origami’. This is a Japanese word, which comes from oru or ori (meaning ‘fold’) and kami (meaning ‘paper’). In Paper Planes Kimi shows Dylan how to fold an origami bird.
In 2013 students and staff of a university in Germany built the largest paper plane on record. It had a wingspan of over 18 metres and took 14 people a combined 1200 hours to construct. And guess what? It even flew when they launched it from a large platform.
Speaking of records, the highest paper plane launch was from a helium balloon 27,000 metres in the air. The group of scientists who built the plane, called Vulture 1, later found it over 160 kilometres from the launch site.
As Dylan finds out in Paper Planes the furthest flight for a paper aircraft is over 69 metres by American Joe Ayoob in 2012. The plane was made from a single piece of A4 paper – just like the competitors use in this story!
What about paper plane target practice? Fumihiro Uno from Japan achieved the most consecutive times to hit a target by throwing his paper plane into a bucket 3 metres away. Try this yourself at home.
If you have loads of friends, maybe you can break the record for the most paper planes launched at the same time. It’s only 12,672 planes. Can you beat that?
Some people think paper with printing on it, like old photocopies, works best for paper plane making. The heat from the printer or photocopier can make the paper more rigid – which means crisper folds and creases!
Many paper plane competitions have three categories: longest distance, longest airtime and aerobatics.
In the most recent international paper plane competition held in 2012, called Red Bull Paper Wings, Australian Brandon Robins from Perth came 13th in the challenging longest distance category. He threw 39.61 metres and said he was ‘stoked with the result’. The winner from the Czech Republic threw a massive 50.37 metres. There were two other Aussies in the competition: Tyler Dolstra placed 52nd in the longest airtime category with 9.8 seconds, and Nathan Tarlinton came 35th in the aerobatics category – and he was the crowd favourite because he wore a Chewbacca costume from Star Wars!
Australians Dylan Parker and James Norton, who inspired the authors of Paper Planes to write the movie, competed in the world paper plane competition in 2009. Dylan even came 3rd in the distance category and both have been teaching the rest of Australia ever since about paper engineering through their paper plane education team, The Paper Pilots.
Other vehicles and flying objects can be made with paper too, like paper kites, paper boats and paper helicopters!
The people of the USA love paper planes so much that they celebrate National Paper Airplane Day every year on 26 May.
First, I’d like to thank the film’s director Robert Connolly for deciding to make a movie about a young Aussie boy and his love of paper planes. Without you none of this would have been possible. I’m thrilled that you asked me to be a part of the project.
I’d like to thank the crew who tirelessly worked on the production and the cast who so vividly brought the characters to life. Also, a huge thank you to the producer Liz Kearney for helping out with all the material needed for the novelisation. And a big thanks to The Paper Pilots Dylan Parker and James Norton for all their input, and Ed and Di Oxenbould for the foreword.
I’d also like to thank the marvellous gang at Penguin Young Readers, specifically my publisher Lisa Riley, who believed in the project from the beginning and has always been extremely supportive, and Jess Owen for her insightful and constructive suggestions about the manuscript during the editing process. It’s been a lot of fun.
Finally, I’d like to thank my agent Selwa Anthony for her tireless efforts, my lovely wife Georgie and gorgeous daughter Holly. As always, this book is for you.
PUFFIN BOOKS
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Penguin Books is part of the Penguin Random House group of companies whose addresses can be found at global.penguinrandomhouse.com.
First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2015
This digital edition published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2015
Text copyright © Steve Worland, 2015.
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Paper Planes motion picture elements copyright © 2015 Arenamedia as listed below. All rights reserved.
Photographs from the film include front cover, back cover, picture
sections between, Behind the Scenes, Main Cast. Images are by David Dare Parker, Jane Bennett and Tristan Milani.
Photo of Ed Oxenbould (in Foreword) by Lesley Bryce
Photo of Robert Connolly (in Behind the Scenes) by Jorge de Araujo
Photos of Robert Connolly and actors (in Behind the Scenes) by Jane Bennett
Photo of Dylan Parker and James Norton (in Note From The Paper Pilots) by Hannah Birks
Diagrams in paper plane instructions (in How to Fold a Paper Plane) provided by Dylan Parker and James Norton
Photo of finished paper plane (in How to Fold a Paper Plane) by Dylan Parker and James Norton
Photo of Steve Worland (in About the Author) by David Griffiths
Paper planes vector image © Shutterstock
Dinkus images © Shutterstock
Cover design by Karen Scott © Penguin Group (Australia)
Text and internal design by Karen Scott © Penguin Group (Australia)
ISBN: 978-1-76014-087-8
puffin.com.au
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