A paper airplane can be inserted into a rigid cardboard envelope against the resistance of an elastic strung across both inside walls. The airplane will thus be in an elastic slingshot. The narrow confines of the envelope will prevent the elastic from crushing the paper airplane. The envelope can be demarcated with a dotted line to indicate that it should not be opened from the top or bottom, but one of the two narrow sides which is not unusual. Once this portion of the envelope is torn away and the envelope gently squeezed, or blown into with a breath of air, the paper airplane will eject under the resistance of the elastic band, spread its wings and glide across the room or into any obstruction in its path.-- rcarty, Dec 22 2012 youtube: Paper Airplane Launching Envelope Demonstration http://www.youtube....kE&feature=youtu.be [rcarty, Dec 22 2012] The closest example I could find http://us.123rf.com...-paper-airplane.jpg [rcarty, Dec 22 2012] Close but not plane. http://www.bing.com...D02CCB6722B&first=0 [2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 26 2012] Lets see some video of it in action. [+]-- Kansan101, Dec 22 2012 I'm having trouble believing this is an orginal idea, because it's such a simple concept. If anyone finds an example of it somewhere I'd like to see it. Several people will be receiving these from me in lieu of cards.-- rcarty, Dec 22 2012 As mentioned I'll be giving some of these prank envelopes for christmas, and I've been working on a larger paper airplane. By placing some sort of elastic bridge across the wings, they can be encouraged to open. Spring loading the envelope is easiest if a long pin is inserted through the corners to hold the elastic in a stretched position. Then the elastic stretched. Then the airplane can be inserted and the envelope closed. Once closed the pin can be removed.-- rcarty, Dec 23 2012 Also the aircraft can be deployed from opening a card.-- rcarty, Dec 23 2012 Also how much power can be concealed in one pack.-- rcarty, Dec 23 2012 And it becomes a small pouch.-- rcarty, Dec 23 2012 [+] waay better than the button+elastic gag.-- FlyingToaster, Dec 23 2012 Can the aeroplane be made to release another envelope after it's launched? - containing a small croissant of course.-- xenzag, Dec 23 2012 You were going russian dolls with that. Possible that the largest envelope could be constructed from heavy cardboard, and the smallest envelope airplane constructed from rice paper, or cigarette papers. Proportional elastics at each stage. Each airplane would have to glide upon an envelope, and once a small parachute deploys from the body of the airplane, the next stage is released.-- rcarty, Dec 23 2012 Perhaps easier to think of a wound elastic band, which spins some kind of propeller once released.-- Ling, Dec 24 2012 The best one I made was in one of those typical top opening envelops, and the airplane was in the bottom spine of the card, and when the card was pulled out the airplane flew out.
V<---airplane flew out U
\</__/ airplane emerging |____| envelope-- rcarty, Dec 26 2012 (+) I've seen something similar using wind-up butterflys, [link], (took long enough to track down...) and there is also a card which dispenses several collapsed cube shapes which spring out of the card into a 3d pile of boxes when the card is opened, but I can't find that one.-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Dec 26 2012 /or blown into with a breath of air/ One blows into the orifice from which the plane then emerges? Will it fly into your mouth? Or your nose, if you are blowing with your nose?-- bungston, Dec 26 2012 Someone criticized me just like that, but more accusingly of perhaps not being able to speculate about such possibilities and as a result causing harm, but there is comedic value in someone getting hit in the face unexpectedly from something innocent a la mode de Americas Funniest Home Videos, and like the tragic comedy of yore the emotional harm of tragedy is offset by laughter at least to the audience, and it has to be accepted that actors in any situation are to some degree acting unknowingly, and perhaps this willful ignorance, that causes one to stumble throughout existence out of blind trust for accepted practices, for example not expecting projectiles in cards, is reason enough to justify being struck by an airplane facially. But beyond that, it's really about a world where there isn't a readiness of all kinds of ideas, because they are not conventional, or they might be criticized somehow, or they don't conform to the thermodynamic constrainsts of a rationalized multitude, so let there be planes in cards, and cards in envelopes, and if it transpires planes in faces because it's not about what happens, but ultimately the idea about what can happen, and indeed what has happened.-- rcarty, Dec 26 2012 Why not just make a small battery and motor paper air plane and throw it? Or you could try a rubber band and a stick?-- travbm, Oct 29 2015 random, halfbakery