Glenbard S. students study flight one paper airplane at a time

Leonardo DaVinci led the way. The Wright Brothers made history.

But when it came to having fun with flight, Glenbard South High School students just might have claimed the top prize.

Students in the engineering technology class put their knowledge to use during a paper airplane competition that sent their experiments airborne - in most cases - from the top of the Glen Ellyn school's auditorium.

Teacher Rob Lang gave them the charge of constructing the best paper airplane, with a mission of making it fly as far as possible. He declined to tell them what the conditions would be, or when the competition would begin.

They had the world at their fingertips - they could use any techniques found researching NASA's Web site, by using Bernoulli's principle, Newton's laws and other construction techniques.

In the end, Lang took them all to the school's auditorium where the planes were let loose one at a time from the light and sound booth near the ceiling.

The winning paper airplane flew 61 feet, landing Tony Scotellaro the victory.