NASA builds world's biggest paper airplane

NASA BUILDS WORLD'S BIGGEST PAPER AIRPLANE
'It's so stupid, it's cool'
By SPENDER GERLE
Weekly World News, 08/16/2004

IN A DESPERATE bid to capture the imagination of American taxpayers who keep the space agency in business, NASA has designed and built the world's biggest paper airplane, according to a watchdog group spokesman!

And the 98-foot, $1.2 billion bird isn't a mere museum piece or just for show, either.

NASA sources familiar with the hush-hush project say the "Flying Squirrel" will fly at least twice -- once over the White House during the inauguration of George Bush or John Kerry next January, and a second time later in the year in outer space.

As it stands, the largest paper airplane ever built was just 4-feet long. Takeo Mishra, 14, of Tokyo, Japan, built "The Yellow Devil" in 1997.

The plane flew 11 feet, 6 inches before a ceiling fan chopped off its right wing, sending the plane spiraling downward into a fireplace where it burned to a crisp while millions watched in shock and disbelief on live, satellite-fed TV.

"We've got to think outside the box -- otherwise everyone at NASA is going to be out of a job," said Dr. Frankz Hyman, a former space adviser who worked on the design.

"The shuttles are grounded for safety concerns. People don't give a damn about our Mars rovers and what they're finding on the Red Planet.

"If we're going to really rev up taxpayers and get them on the NASA bandwagon, we've got to do something fresh and unexpected. "Building a giant paper airplane fits the bill. It's so stupid, it's cool. And besides, it's something everyone can identify with."