Inside the Paper Kings Design Contest: How We Pick Our Paper Airplane Lineup

Most of our paper airplane lineup didn't come from a single designer — it came out of an ongoing internal folding contest we run with our whole team.

How the contest works

Anyone on the team can submit a design. We fold and test each other's planes for distance, straightness, and how consistently they fly even with a slightly imperfect fold, and then the team votes on a winner. The winning design gets added to the shop.

The lineup so far

• Anaconda — our first-ever award winner, known for a long tapered body that holds a straight line

• KittyHawk — 2nd place, named after the Wright brothers' first flight location, a simple reliable all-rounder

• F-11d BlackWing — 3rd place, one of the trickier folds with a swept-back wing

• Mighty Eagle — 4th place, wide wings built to glide rather than dart

• The Sienna — 5th place, a rounder, wider-bodied glider

• The Swifter — 6th place, light and quick off the hand

• The Walloping Cebu — 7th place, known for a loop-back flight pattern

• Saab 35 Draken — 8th place, modeled after the real Swedish fighter jet's double-delta wings

• El Dardo — 9th place, nearly all point, built purely for speed

• C-13 Cobra — 10th place, sharp and angular, better for stunts than distance

• Artemis — 11th place, notably consistent even with an off-center fold

Beyond the contest

Not every plane in our shop came from the contest, though. Plasma Y and Plasma X came from our partnership with the design studio Foldable Flight, and of course the CF-105 Arrow II is the original — folded by our CEO, Phoenix Queen, at age 6, and the reason Paper Kings exists at all.

We're planning to keep running the contest as long as people keep submitting new folds, so expect the lineup to keep growing.