How to Make the Turbo Dagger Paper Airplane

Fast, long range and simple, the Turbo Dagger is a capable aircraft suitable for most all origami aviators. The Turbo Dagger was designed to complement the similar Warhawk as an alternative to more complex aircraft like the Vulcan and Super Vulcan. Due to its unsophisticated design, the Turbo Dagger is an ideal aircraft for those new to paper aviation and those looking for experience with "dart" paper airplanes.

The effort to design the Turbo Dagger came to provide additional alternatives to increasingly sophisticated aircraft such as the Vanguard, which was particularly intricate. While the smaller Warhawk was one answer to this, and was a simpler aircraft than others it was intended to complement, it had its own degree of complexity in the requirement of a square piece of paper. To address this, I designed a new aircraft, which carried many features over from the contemporary Super Vulcan. Essentially, the Turbo Dagger prototype came to be a simpler (albeit slightly modified),Super Vulcan variant. The prototype was found to be successful and I decided to post an instructable for it.

TAA USAF Designation: F297-1

Required:
1 Piece of 8.5 by 11 inch Paper
Tape
Pencil
Ruler
Optional:
Scissors (additional surfaces only)

Fold your paper in half length-wise. Then pull the paper down so that the crease stretches from the fold at the front you just made and the corner of the paper on the other side. Repeat on the other side. Once this is completed, pull the overhanging paper back above the center crease made earlier. Fold the edges of these sections down over the center crease as shown, then pull the triangular tip of the nose back over them.

Fold the aircraft in half along its center fold. Once this is done, fold the canards down, aligning their leading edges with that of the nose to maintain the angle of incidence. After this is completed, measure 0.75 inches above the center fold at the trailing edge of the airframe. Fold the wings down at this mark (maintain the angle of incidence by aligning the trailing edges of the wings with that of the fuselage). Measure 0.75 inches in from the wingtip along the trailing edges, fold the winglets.

Apply tape to the front of fuselage, both above and below the canards. Tape the canard folds to the fuselage, and then apply tape to the airfoil folds on the fuselage as shown. Tape the rear fuselage together and across the wing root near the trailing edge. This will complete your Turbo Dagger.

The Turbo Dagger is fairly simple and can be flown by origami aviators with basic experience easily. The Turbo Dagger should be launched at a neutral or positive attitude at a moderate to high speed. Additional applicable surfaces include flaps, elevators, ailerons, slats, flaperons, elevons, rudders, air brakes and canard trim. Enjoy!