It’s easy to create a paper airplane capable of flying across a classroom, but one that can travel 200 feet is a little more difficult. A group of students from the University of Pisa in Italy not only managed to reach that distance with a single glide, but they did so with the Guinness World Record holder for the largest paper airplane ever assembled.

Constructed using only paper and some glue, the team’s nearly 23-foot-long creation with a wingspan of more than 65 feet crossed a warehouse at Italy’s annual We Make Future expo on June 25. According to the university’s announcement, the students broke a record previously held since 2013 by Germany’s Braunschweig Institute of Technology.

THE LANCIO DELL’AEREO DI CARTA PIÙ GRANDE DEL MONDO!

“It all started with [constructing] Some paper airplanes between classes, almost as a joke,” the team said in a statement. “We were students convinced that, with the right method, even a piece of paper could become real engineering.”

Science YouTuber Jakidale documented the design process and testing, highlighting the hours of trial and error, CAD renderings, and experimentation required to achieve collective success. You can see the full exercise in a couple of videos, as long as you speak fluent Italian. But even if you’re not fluent in the Romance language, it’s still fascinating to watch “Project Icarus” unfold.

“In the end we managed to return to Italy a world record that stood for thirteen years,” the team added.

ABBIAMO COSTRUITO L’AEREO DI CARTA PIÙ GRANDE DEL MONDO

Don’t have the engineering knowledge or enough paper to make your own gigantic glider? There are still many aeronautically sound paper airplane schemes to try, including one officially endorsed by NASA.

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