When I was very young, someone (I don’t remember who) taught me how to make a paper dart. It was only much later that I realized that the design I’d been taught was different from everyone else’s paper darts. Instead of being the usual trangular shape, mine was a complex thing of triangles and rectangles. And, in my entire lifetime, I have never met anyone who makes darts the way I do. But it is such a good flyer that I have stayed with it and never learned how to make those triangular things.

And now I have decided to share my secret knowledge with the world (oh, you lucky people!). Here is how to make a completely different paper dart.

Fold a reasonably clean and flat piece of paper (any size, as long as it’s not square) so that a top corner meets the opposite edge, as in Step 1. Then fold it out again and do the same with the other top corner. Then unfold it and you should have something that looks like step 2, with creases where the lines are drawn.

Take the top corners of the paper, one in each hand, and pull it towards you, at the same time pressing in on the sides with your free fingers. You might have to encourage the very tip of the paper to fold correctly but it should look like Step 3 as you’re doing it. Then press it down flat so that the new folds become permanent.

At the base of the triangle you have created, grab an outer corner and bend it towards the centerline of the paper, again folding it flat when the edges line up, as in Step 4. The drawing shows the left side treated in this way while the right remains to be done.

When you have completed both sides, grab an outer of corner of one of the two triangles just created and fold it in to the center line again, as shown in Step 5. Repeat on the other side. Then fold the tip of the triangle towards you and down so that it covers the top of the triangles - as in Step 6.

Now fold the paper inwards along its center line, shown by the dotted line in the drawing. If you have been reasonably accurate with your folding, all the edges should meet and the sides be equal. All that remains is to fold out the wings along the line shown in Step 8, squash the folds flat so that they retain their shape, and you have a unique paper dart. It should look like this:

The great thing about this design is that you can alter its flying characteristics by forcing the wings into better profiles and perhaps even making small cuts to create ailerons and a tail. Have fun!