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FUKUYAMA, Hiroshima--Paper airplane enthusiast Takuo Toda has rewritten the Guinness World Record for the longest flight time by a paper airplane. Folded from paper made from sugarcane, Toda's record-breaking airplane weighs only 2 grams. On April 11, it was thrown to a height of 18 meters at a gymnasium in Fukuyama and slowly circled to the ground in a flight of 27.9 seconds--0.3 second longer than the previous record held by an American.
"I'd been trying to break the record for 11 years," said Toda, 52. "I finally got it."
In September, Toda will make a guest appearance at a national competition at the Makuhari Messe convention center in Mihama Ward, Chiba. "Next time my plane will fly for 30 seconds," he said.
In 1978, while a student at Waseda University, Toda was involved in a mountain-climbing accident. To kill time while hospitalized, he folded paper airplanes.
"It was interesting to be able to make various types of airplanes from one piece of paper, so I ordered a book on aeronautical engineering and designed [paper airplanes]," Toda recalled.
His dedication did not fade even after he took over his family's precision equipment processing company at the age of 24. In 1995, Toda established the Japan Origami Airplane Association with five close friends. Serving as chairman of the association, Toda attracted attention when he launched paper airplanes from the Arc de Triomphe in Paris and from a hot air balloon.
Toda currently is working with research institutions on an experiment to launch a paper airplane--shaped like a space shuttle and made from highly heat-resistant paper--from space into the Earth's atmosphere.
"An increasing number of children have no dreams about science," Toda said. "I hope [children] will be excited by the sight of a paper airplane flying in space." -The Yomiuri Shimbun/ANN
