Projectiles
Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 196
Best paper airplanes
The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book
How to make better paper airplanes. This is the third generation of books offering plans for the best, and these really are better. They were designed with the aid of aeronautical testing. The winning design flew a record 226 feet. Know what? The ultimate paper airplane still has not been invented. Distance isn’t everything. This book will help you invent it. — KK
Safe boomerang
This lightweight boomerang won’t kill you if it happens to strike you or a passerby. It flies fast, wide, and sure. Easy to catch because of its closed shape. It does take practice to get a full no-move-from-start return, but anyone can get it to come mostly back. You’ll need a football-sized empty field for its 90-foot circle performance. Unlike a frisbee, it can be a lot of fun solo. — KK
Easy catch
Even the most sports-impaired among us can enjoy this well designed little toy: take a bean-bag, wrap it in grippy fabric, and add a tail: voila, the FlingSock. Better than other “flying tails”, in my opinion. It flies amazingly far (sometimes too far — be careful that it doesn’t end up on a roof). Even when it smacks me in the head, the light polyethylene pellet filled bag don’t hurt a bit. Doesn’t bounce either, so it won’t pop out of your hand or roll unexpectedly into the street. Easily sized to grab, with grippy rubberized fabric to keep it from slipping, and a fabric tail for second chance catches, as well as fabulous flinging…all in cheery, rainbow tie-dye colors. The mini size is perfect for slipping into school backpacks, flipping around in your yard, or to keep handy in the car for spontaneous flings — rolled up, it’s about the size of a small lemon. The regular size can and will go 30 yards and more — better save that one for the park! — Barbara Dace
A frisbee for clowns and kids
A Beamo is somewhere between a flying hula hoop, a slow-motion nerf disc, and a gigantic frisbee. The doughnut design makes it easy to catch using any part of your body, and since it softly boings when it hits something, it’s super safe. Also, being large (30 inches) and slow and reversible, it’s slightly easier than a frisbee to maneuver. Perfectly sized for kids, and oodles of fun for adults, it WILL tire you out. I recently witnessed a conference of chair-bound nerds rise up and break out into sweat to play with a Beamo for hours on end. It’s hard to remain motionless when this Clown Frisbee is in the air. — KK
Simple water cannon
The genius of these water cannons are their simplicity. A single moving part — a big fat piston with handle grip — squeezes a wide stream of water down and out their large diameter tubes. Filling them you reverse, sucking in water via the same orifice. When loaded (takes about 2 seconds) they gush water at least 30 feet. Impossible to clog, and nearly unbreakable, both kids and adults can operate them around pools, lakes, rafts, canoes and boats. These are the regulation-issued weapons at our place. — KK