Balancing Your Whitewings Paper Airplane

The center of mass, center of gravity or simply CG is the place on an airplane where it balances, front to back. You can find this point by balancing the airplane on the tip of some tweezers. The ideal location for the CG is indicated on each of the Whitewings paper airplanes by a ▲ triangle or Center of Mass mark. In some cases it may be marked by two pinholes under the wing. The instructions will indicate which method is used.

Balancing a Paper Airplane on Tweezers

Some models allow you to insert small weights inside the nose before attaching the final piece of paper. You should insert a small weight, temporarily attach the last layer of paper and then test the CG. Make adjustments to the weight until you are happy. Then glue on the final piece of paper, hiding the weights. There are a variety of different weights that you can use. Some of the older Whitewings kits came with lead foil that you would cut up. Lead is hazardous, so this is no longer recommended. Here are some other suggestions:

Small Metal Washers as nose weight Small Metal Washers

Our accessory pack includes this option. We recommend size #6 washers which weigh about 0.4g each. You can fit two of them inside the weight holes, bringing the total weight to 0.8g.

Tungsten Putty as nose weight Tungsten Putty

Tungsten putty is a heavy clay-like substance that you can mold into any shape and size. A pea sized piece of putty that fits in the weight hole weighs about 1.2g.

Metal Solder as nose weight Metal Solder

This material is used with a soldering iron for electronics work. It can be cut to any length and coiled up to fit inside the paper airplanes. Solder is mostly made from tin, so it is lighter than steel or tungsten. Up to 0.3g of solder will fit into the weight hole.

Paperclip Pieces as nose weight Paperclip Pieces

Another method is to cut little pieces of paperclips or other small bits of wire. The weight hole can hold about 0.4g of paperclip pieces and it's adjustable so you can put in however much you want. If you want to skip cutting out the weight holes, you can do that and then clip a full size paperclip to the outside after its all constructed.

Paper as nose weight Paper

If the paper airplane you are building does not have a weight hole, or if you have already glued it together, you can also adjust the CG by gluing on a small scrap of paper. Add it to the nose of the airplane to move the CG forward or add it to the tail to move the CG backwards. Paper is much lighter than the metals, so you'll need more of it to have the same effect.

Clay as nose weight Clay

If you want to make temporary adjustments to the CG after it is built, you can use a small ball of clay or putty that you stick onto the airplane. This allows you to make small adjustments in the field while you are flying.