In the Nov. 23 issue of TIME Magazine there's a list of the 50 greatest inventions of the year. One of the achievements included is a paper airplane flight of 27.6 seconds, which beat the previous world record by 3/10ths of a second. This airplane was folded by head of Japan's origami society.
To which I can only say, Bah, humbug.
I spent a month, in the summer of 1969, living in a lycée in Strasbourg, France. While there, I realized that to my American tastes, the French toilet paper (which came in small squares, seemingly a cross between wax paper and sandpaper) had to be good for something other than its proclaimed purpose. I folded one into a paper airplane and launched it out the second story window.
That sucker flew.
It caught a breeze and hung on, floating around the courtyard for a while. When we realized it was sailing around a building and would go out of view, my friends and I ran downstairs and gave chase. We made it far enough around the building to see it gently descend to earth on the far side. Given that we watched it from the window for a while, then had time to run downstairs, then across the courtyard and around another building, I'd have to say that even if memory exaggerates to some degree, it flew for well over a minute, maybe close to two.
27.6 seconds, as we say on the street, ain't no thang.
Of course, I didn't have observers from the Guinness Book of World Records on hand, so it wasn't documented. No world's record for me. But origami dude, enjoy your fame while it lasts, because your achievement isn't all that special.