Paper Aircraft Released Into Space
{{Use Oxford spelling|date=April 2023}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2023}}
{{Redirect|Vulture 1|the album|Vultures 1}}
{{about|the project by The Register|paper planes in space|Paper planes launched from space}}
The Paper Aircraft Released Into Space (PARIS) project was a privately organized endeavour undertaken by various staff members of the British information technology website The Register to design, build, test, and launch a lightweight aerospace vehicle, constructed mostly of paper and similar structural materials, into the mid-stratosphere and recover it intact.
On 28 October 2010, an aircraft was successfully launched at {{convert|90000|ft|m|abbr=on}}—17 miles up—setting a then world record for "highest altitude paper plane launch" recognised by Guinness World Records at a location about {{Convert|120|mi||abbr=}} west of Madrid, Spain.{{cite web |url=http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-9000/highest-altitude-paper-plane-launch/ |title=Highest Altitude Paper Plane Launch |website=GuinnessWorldRecords.com |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006120717/http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records-9000/highest-altitude-paper-plane-launch/ |archive-date=6 October 2014 |access-date=12 April 2023 }}
Project
Staffers at The Register, inspired by the CU Spaceflight Nova 1 project, formally announced their intention to initiate a project of their own on 30 July 2009.
{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/30/reg_space_mission/
|title=El Reg to launch space paper plane
|publisher=The Register
|date=30 July 2009
|access-date=16 July 2010
}} The aircraft's name was selected by a poll of the readers of The Register. was subsequently named Vulture 1{{citation |url=http://forms.theregister.co.uk/poll/?id=26 |title=The El Reg space plane should be christened.... - Reg Poll Results |date=31 July 2009 |first=Lester |last=Haines |work=The Register |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090814193039/http://forms.theregister.co.uk/poll/?id=26 |archive-date=14 August 2009 }} (a reference to The Register{{'s}} own nickname "Vulture Central").
{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/10/paris_update/
|title=El Reg space paper plane christened Vulture 1
|publisher=The Register
|date=10 August 2009
|access-date=16 July 2010
}}
The use of the word "space" in the project's name refers to "near space", not "outer space", since it was not planned for the vehicle to ascend to an altitude above the Kármán line (the boundary of outer space, defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as {{convert|100|km|mi|abbr=on}} above the earth's surface
{{cite web
|url=http://www.fai.org/system/files/GS_2010.pdf
|title=FAI Sporting Code: General Sections 2010 (PDF)
|page=Glossary 3 (PDF page 52/53)
|publisher=Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
|date=1 January 2010
|access-date=16 July 2010
}}); it is nevertheless a project that is closely related to the concept of private spaceflight.
Lester Haines, special projects editor ("Iberian Bureau") at The Register, as part of his reporting on CU Spaceflight's Nova 1 mission{{cite web
|url=http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/nova1launch.php
|title=CU Spaceflight: Nova 1 launch report
|publisher=Cambridge University Spaceflight
|date=September 2006
|access-date=16 July 2010
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110607233341/http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~cuspaceflight/nova1launch.php
|archive-date=7 June 2011
{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/nova_1/
|title=UK uni rocket payload test hits 105,600ft
|publisher=The Register
|date=18 September 2006
|access-date=16 July 2010
}} and at the behest of [https://web.archive.org/web/20091214100551/http://www.srcf.ucam.org/cuspaceflight/nova.php Nova] team member Carl Morland, mused that "El Reg might like to contribute something" as a payload to a future high-altitude balloon project, and invited the online magazine's readership to make suggestions as to what kind of payload package should be designed and built.
{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/09/18/payload_competition/
|title=El Reg to Launch Space Payload
|publisher=The Register
|date=10 August 2009
|access-date=16 July 2010
}} After languishing for a few years in limbo, the balloon payload project was resurrected in July 2009 and called PARIS, as a backronym from Paper Aircraft Released Into Space after Paris Hilton, the payload type having been suggested by readers in 2006.
The paper plane was successfully launched on 28 October 2010.
{{cite web
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-11734084
|title=Paper Plane Launched into Space Captures Earth Images
|work=BBC News
|date=11 November 2010
|access-date=15 November 2010}}
LOHAN
{{As of|2011|post=,}} The Register was working on PARIS' successor, named LOHAN (short for "Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator"), a balloon-launched rocket-powered aircraft.
{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/07/07/vulture_2/
|title=El Reg to Unleash Rocket-Powered Spaceplane
|publisher=The Register
|date=7 July 2011
|access-date=23 August 2011}} However, Lester Haines died in 2016 of a heart attack while LOHAN was still awaiting FAA approval, and as of 2023 The Register has yet to publish anything more about it.{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.com/2016/12/27/the_life_and_times_of_lester_haines/
|title=The Life and Times of Lester Haines
|publisher=The Register
|date=27 December 2016
|access-date=2023-06-09}}{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.com/2016/03/04/imac_fish_tank/
|title=LOHAN sponsor knocks up nifty iMac fish tank
|publisher=The Register
|date=4 March 2016
|access-date=2023-06-09}}{{cite web
|url=https://www.theregister.com/Tag/LOHAN/
|title=LOHAN
|publisher=The Register
|date=27 December 2016
|access-date=2023-06-09}}