Glider Designer
Design first, then let go. Pick the wing, the weight, the trim angle and how hard to throw — the glider does the rest, and you compare what happened.
Choose wing area, mass, trim and launch speed, then launch a stylised glider and compare its flights.
FreeOn this device
- Lift coefficient CL
- 0.209
- Drag coefficient CD
- 0.044
- Lift ÷ drag
- 4.81
- Lift at launch
- 10.62
- Weight
- 12.25
A stylised model: fixed trim, no stall, no turning body, no gusts. Distances are model units, not a prediction for any real glider or paper plane. Launched level from a height of 10.
Controls
- Set wing area, mass, trim angle and launch speed with the sliders or type exact numbers. Each challenge shows its allowed ranges.
- Launch flies the design. There is no steering in flight; Reset clears the drawing.
- The table keeps your last five flights; older paths stay as faint dashed ghosts.
The rules
- Lift pushes at right angles to the air flowing past; drag pushes back against it. Both grow with the square of air speed.
- Trim sets the lift coefficient (CL = 4 × angle, capped at 1.2) and drag coefficient (CD = 0.04 + 0.08 × CL²).
- Wind is a steady breeze: a headwind means more air speed but less ground covered.
- A flight ends when it touches the ground or after 60 seconds.
Scoring, saving and limits
Each challenge is complete once one flight meets its goal. Wobbles count how often the path turned from falling back to climbing.
Your current design, last five flights and completed challenges are kept on this device.
A deliberately simple model with fixed trim and no stall, turning or gusts. Distances are model units and say nothing about real aircraft or paper planes.
Questions
- Why does my glider loop up?
- Plenty of lift at high speed: more lift than weight makes it climb. Try less trim, a smaller wing or a slower launch.
- Why doesn't a bigger wing always go further?
- A bigger wing adds drag as well as lift; the best distance comes from balancing them.
- Is there a known answer?
- Every challenge has at least one design found by a step-by-step search over the allowed ranges, so each one can be met.