The Bat Wing is awesome and definitely a cool paper airplane to have in your arsenal! I was testing some new folds and discovered this completely by accident. This paper airplane not only looks great and glides well, the wings flap like a bird or bat. Check out the video above to see the Bat Wing in action.
Throwing the Bat Wing and seeing it fly never gets old. Throw the paper plane with a good amount of speed. With the way the paper airplane is designed, air passing through the wings quickly causes it to flap. When the Bat Wing slows down, it becomes an ultra glider and lands smoothly.
*A quick tip for throwing, hold the paper airplane with the wings parallel to the ground. The way this paper airplane is designed, the end of the fuselage should be touching your palm.
TIP: If you have not watch my video on how to make a perfect paper airplane fold, click on the link and watch it now. Make sure you use this technique every time you fold a paper airplane.
Step 1: The tutorial uses A4 80g printer paper. I’ve made this paper airplane with 70g A4 paper as well and it flies very well.
Step 2: Fold the paper in half along the width.
Step 3: Fold the two corners of the paper and align the sides to the center line.
Step 4: Fold the edge of the wings and align it to the center line. This creates a pointed tip. We will refer to this pointed tip a couple times in the steps below.
Step 5: Fold the pointed tip along the center line so it reaches the back end of the paper airplane and crease.
Step 6: Unfold step 5 creating a middle crease.
Step 7: Hold you finger on the center crease made in Step 6 and fold the wings downward. See image labeled “Step: 7A” to see how this fold is creased on the back side.
Step 7A: This is just an illustration of Step 7’s fold on the back side.
Step 8: Fold the other side of the wings in the same manner.
Step 9: Refold the pointed tip back to the back edge of the paper airplane as in Step 5.
Step 10: Fold the pointed tip again creating the nose of the Bat Wing. Notice this fold aligns with an earlier fold, see image labeled “Step 10A”.
Step 10A: This is an illustration of the line you should align the pointed tip fold to in Step 10.
Step 11: Fold the Bat Wing in half, you’re so close to being done!
Step 12: Fold the wings down by following the angle created by the nose of the paper airplane. See how the ruler is placed in the picture.
Step 13: Fold the other wing in the same way, both wings need to be perfectly matching.
Step 14: Lift the wings up and check out the Bat Wing!
Step 15: Use some tape to hold the back fuselage together. Tape it together in the lower, middle half section. Do not tape the wings together on the top edge of the fuselage where the wings meet.
Step 16: Lift the wings up at a slight angle. You want the wings to be angled upwards giving it a positive dihedral angle. The Bat Wing is ready for action!
Troubleshooting:
When you throw the Bat Wing, make sure the wings are parallel to the ground. The wings are folded with a very strong slant. If you hold the Bat Wing like a normal paper airplane, it will not fly well. Hold the Bat Wing with the wings parallel to the ground, the back fuselage should be sticking into your palms.
Fly the Bat Wing around several times and allow the wing folds to loosen. When the folds are new and tight, the wings will not flap or will only flap slightly. Keep flying it around. For those that have no patience (like me), manually fold and unfold the wings several times to loosen them.
If the fuselage and the nose separates, it’s ok, it usually doesn’t affect flight. You can tape the nose section to the fuselage if you’d like, it will not affect flapping.
