How to Make the Starjet Paper Airplane

Fast, long range, adaptable and capable of stunts, the Starjet is an impressive little paper airplane. In addition to being a cool looking paper airplane it is a very adaptable one as well; the Starjet carries over the provisions for elevators, flaps, slats, pods, air brakes and a bomb bay from its ancestor, the Harrier paper airplane. These potential add-ons make the Starjet a capable trainer or fighter airplane, on top of all the other things it can perform. 

Because its developed from the trusty Harrier and it has a forward swept trailing edge, the Starjet is very hard to spin and is also quite accurate. In addition, the idea of the Starjet came partially from the Spirit paper airplane, with which it shares a common vertical stabilizer design. This plane is the result of my tries to produce a widely multirole airplane for all sorts of activities, and I feel I've accomplished that goal with this airframe. Looking back on how it turned out, I feel the Starjet resembles the miniature Mosquito drone paper airplane.

TAA USAF Designation: A110-1

Required:
1 Piece of 8.5 by 11 Paper
Tape
Scissors
Ruler

Optional:
Pencil

Fold your paper along its length. Then fold its corners down to the center as shown. Once this is done, flip the paper over to the "clean" side, and pull the nose back to the point at which the corner folds end on the other side.

Flip back to the "dirty" side, and pull the corners down to the center as shown. Then flip to the "clean" side, and pull what will be the nose open as shown.

Fold your airplane up in half, then pull the corners at the back down like you did on the front side originally. Then unfold. Then cut along the creases these corner folds made. They should be equal with one another. You can then recycle the scraps that were cut away. 

Now fold your wings down. Do this by folding the leading edge of the wing down as they are guided by the nose folds. Then repeat on the other side. Once both wings are folded, unfold them and flip the plane so that its sits upside down. Then fold the wingtips in so their tips touch the ends of the straight airfoil section to make your winglets. Make sure the creases of the winglets remain parallel to the fuselage.

Begin folding your tail by taking the rear tip of your plane and folding it so its top faces rearward. This will result in a tail fin whose trailing edge is wholly perpendicular to the wing from a side view. Then unfold that, open the fuselage, and pull the fin through.

Tape your Starjet at its front, over the front fuselage, its under-wing fuselage flaps (not the airfoil though), and its rear just below the wing root across the tail.

Although seemingly a dart, the Starjet flies similar to "hybrid" paper airplanes that use both dart and glider configurations. Because of its ventral wingtips and blunt nose, the Starjet is also resistant to damage. To launch it for a normal, cruising flight, just throw it at a very moderate pace. To make your Starjet do a loop or a half Cuban Eight, throw it straight up with moderate force. Other variants of the Starjet, like the "-1R" pictured below, may require different launch configurations. Enjoy!