How to Make the Tiger Paper Airplane

The Tiger is a speedy, durable and compact paper airplane. With landing gear and a blunt tip, the Tiger has proven to be a good fit for those looking for a trainer paper airplane, or one easily capable of flight after flight.






TAA USAF Designation: A74-1

Required:
1 Piece of 8.5 by 11 inch Paper
Tape

Optional:
Pencil

To begin making your Tiger, fold the paper into fourths. Do this by folding the paper in half along its length, then its width. Then open it. It should now look like the paper in the last photograph.

Pull the paper from one corner of the sheet to the opposite side. Repeat this on the other side of the paper too. Once the corners have been folded to each other's opposite side, pull the paper down to have the "X fold" overlap and form a "V". Proceed to then tuck the paper in under itself so it eventually makes a sharp triangular nose shape. 

On the triangular front, there will be a crease which parallels the airfoil. To start to prepare your landing gear, fold it so it sits on the side of the paper where the cover fold isn't.  Then when this is done, pull it back over so that it sits on top of the cover folds. From here, pull the paper of the edges of the cover fold up and over this small triangle at the front. When they are pulled over the triangle, pull them back down so the uppermost parts layer back down above the triangle as illustrated. Unfold the edges of the paper and then insert both into the triangle's slots. When this is done, the edges you folded down to the size of the triangle should fit inside of the triangle they were measured to. Tuck each in, and this step is complete.

Fold the paper edges into the triangle to make the landing gear. After the landing gear has been folded, fold the wings down. Before you start folding the wings, make sure you've put the landing gear back up flush with the bottom of the wing. From 3/4 of an inch up from the bottom of the fuselage (the center fold in the paper), fold down the the wing. Repeat this on the other side. Then, to make the winglets, fold the paper up 3/4 of an inch from the wingtips. Repeat on the other side.

To tape your Tiger, tape the front and back of the fuselage together. Once this is done, flip the plane onto its back and tape the back of the landing gear flaps to the bottom of the airfoil.

The Tiger is fairly forgiving as paper airplanes go. With its blunt tip and landing gear, the Tiger is a good plane for training beginners or airmen looking for a durable airplane. It is a 'middle of the road' plane for speed. At launch, the compound swept wing mandates a medium launch speed.

After a person flies the Tiger, they may want to also look into an older but very similarly configured paper airplane--the Tigershark (https://www.instructables.com/id/How-To-Make-The-Tigershark-Paper-Airplane/).


Enjoy!