Peter Sripol Takes His Cardboard Airplane to the Air

Peter Sripol is one of the few people in the world who builds his own electric airplanes and actually flies in them. And he often builds his airplanes, both manned and unmanned, using unconventional materials. Recently, he has been working on an airplane made from cardboard and his newest video shows what happened when flying it.

Corrugated cardboard actually isn’t the worst material for an airplane. It is strong, lightweight, and affordable. If weather resistance isn’t a concern, such as when the plane only needs to last long enough for a few YouTube videos, it makes sense. But a lot of engineering is necessary to make the cardboard strong in the right places.

Fortunately, Sripol is great at pulling off that kind of engineering through an innovative mix of intuition and experimentation. In this case, the plane’s fuselage and wings are crisscrossing panels made of heavy-duty cardboard cut using various techniques to keep the weight down. To further reduce the weight, some of the “skin,” such as on the wings, is just paper. The big exception to the cardboard construction mandate was the landing gear. For obvious reasons, that has a welded steel tube frame.

Internal combustion engines are heavy and complicated, so Sripol used electric motors to provide thrust. That entire setup is essentially identical to what you’d find on an RC aircraft. In fact, Sripol pilots the plane using a regular old RC transmitter. Even the batteries are just hobby lithium packs.

The most recent video in the saga is when Sripol put the cardboard airplane to the test in a real manned flight, with himself in the pilot’s seat. That went well, until it didn’t.

The plane flew at very low altitudes just a few feet above the ground. But that proved to be its downfall. Sripol reached a tree line and was unable to gain enough altitude to clear the branches, resulting in a collision with the vegetation.

Fortunately, the crash happened at a low speed of around 20mph and at virtually zero altitude. Those factors, combined with the squishiness of both the cardboard plane and the tree branches, kept Sripol from suffering any injuries.

But, ya know, don’t attempt this at home.