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Many years ago (circa 1994, I think) I was gifted a Whitewings paper airplane assembly kit. Sadly, I don't know which volume, and I no longer have any of the planes, but I do recall one thing - they were a blast to fly.

Recently my kids started experimenting with paper airplanes, many folded from the excellent designs published by John Bringhurst in my copy of his work "Planes, Jets, and Helicopters" from 1993. However, most of the designs in that book while fun to fold and fly, don't work well out of doors. I remembered Whitewings planes from my youth and decided to pick up a couple of volumes to play with- they are very much "outdoor" planes.

Sadly, the vast majority of Whitewings designs are long out of print. The only new kits I can find carrying the name are paper and balsa kits designed for educational programs. The original all paper and paper and balsa kits can only be found as used (often partial or incomplete) or new old stock.

And there's the dilemma. Whitewings are made to be flown, not just collected. But cutting up your kits to build and fly paper planes that will inevitably be lost or destroyed in turn destroys your collection that may not be able to be replaced.

So, what to do? A bit of low-level piracy.¹ Making high-quality digital copies that can be re-printed, re-cut, and re-flown. That part isn't terribly challenging these days. The true challenge is material selection. The original kits were printed on card stock - but what size? How about weight? Grain direction? Caliper? Finish texture? I suspect when Yasuaki Ninomiya designed the planes that would become Whitewings kits in the 70's there was some thought or care put into the material choice. But even if it was an afterthought, replicating the feel and performance of the original designs would depend on proper modern material replacements.