Amateur space enthusiasts Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines made the plane out of paper straws covered with paper.
They attached the aircraft - which has a 3ft wingspan - and a camera to a helium balloon and released it into the air on October 28.
It soared an astonishing 23 miles above the ground, taking dozens of photographs, before gliding back to earth.
The men came up with the idea a year ago.
After months of planning, they put operation Paris - Paper Aircraft Released Into Space - into action, travelling to Spain to send the plane on its journey.
The balloon climbed to 90,000 ft where the helium expanded to a point that caused the balloon to burst and the plane was released, gliding down to earth 100 miles from where it set off.
There was no point to the exercise, IT expert Steve Davies told Sky News Online. "We did it because we wanted to see if we could - and we could!
"We expected a few niggles and thought that the plane would come back to earth in bits but it was all in one piece.
Does any member of the board wish to rise to the challenge?
And for a few weekends work, this is pretty damn cool.
Edited your title because of poor spelling and inanity. -lagmonster
"Aid, trade, green technology and peace." - Hans Rosling.
"Welcome to SDN, where we can't see the forest because walking into trees repeatedly feels good, bro." - Mr Coffee
I wonder how heavy a payload such a plane could carry
Let him land on any Lyran world to taste firsthand the wrath of peace loving people thwarted by the myopic greed of a few miserly old farts- Katrina Steiner
The hardware needed to do something of this sort is about 1500 dollars all told.
Sigh. As usual, science journalism is worth precisely fuck all. 90,000 feet is 17 miles, not 23. Heavier than air aircraft don't magically gain 6 miles of altitude with no source of thrust (and no, wind doesn't count; a balloon-deployed aircraft is already traveling at the speed of the air), so 90,000 feet is the highest anything they sent up went. Presumably the balloon drifted 77 miles with the wind before it burst, and the airplane glided 23 miles horizontally.
It's not that hard. I was part of a group that organized space balloon launches last year. It's pretty fun to take pictures from space! You just need to make sure you're able to retrieve your camera.
Interesting, funny even, but ultimately a case of <sees thread title> "wtf?"
Baltar: "I don't want to miss a moment of the last Battlestar's destruction!"
Centurion: "Sir, I really think you should look at the other Battlestar."
Baltar: "What are you babbling about other...it's impossible!"
Centurion: "No. It is a Battlestar."
Corrax Entry 7:17: So you walk eternally through the shadow realms, standing against evil where all others falter. May your thirst for retribution never quench, may the blood on your sword never dry, and may we never need you again.
