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Book Name: Sixteen Flying Machines, inspired by Leonardo da Vinci Date Reviewed: 14 June 2007 Author: Unknown ISBN# ? Year of original book/Year of my copy - 1990/1995 Pages - 34 pages Cover Price - $5.50 Number of Planes - 4 Planes Names of Planes - No named planes Level of difficulty - 4 out of 10 Comments:    This is a good concept, executed very well, but it falls short of expectations. Let's take my complaints with this one by one. Sixteen Flying Machines - While there are indeed 16 paper airplanes in the kit, there are only 4 designs, so you are in fact building  the same planes 4 times. Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci - I don't recognize any of these planes in da Vinci's drawings, but perhaps I just haven't seen them there. Little Text - Very little background is given on Leonardo, and most of that is on the envelope that holds the sheets of paper. Of the 34 pages in this, 32 pages are the sheets of paper for the paper airplanes.     That being said, I still like this concept, and this book/let was done very well. The paper for the paper airplanes is top quality and the design of them really make them look like they could have been torn out of da Vinci's notebooks. The 4 designs are decent and fly very well, and the instructions are complete and very well done. There are even directions on how to make a paper airplane mobile included. I would Still purchase this, but I think it is overprices for what you get in it.     To improve this, I think that a couple pages on da Vinci's life and times are in order, and at least 4 more airplane designs. Hopefully, more accurately based on his designs. Total Score: 4 out of 10.

Front of Envelope

Back of Envelope

I have not been able to locate this book for sale in the internet anywhere. I purchased mine on ebay. I have written the editors, and asked them if they still sell this. I will let you know what I find out! If I can, I will make this either available online for free, or an inexpensive copy to be purchased.

Check out the planes I made using the instructions in the book!

Plane A No named planes in book! All the planes were made with paper included in kit. There were 4 copies of each plane, colored on both sides.

Begin each weekend with a paper airplane design delivered to your inbox!

Plane B

Plane C

Plane D

Mobile Design This was actually quite nice to have hanging in The Museum for a couple days. It took up too much room for me to leave up, but with proper placement could be very decorative in another room.

Mobie Design Here is another view of the mobile, it is kinda difficult to capture it on a camera!.

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