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Scale Model of Boeing 777-300ER, Made from Manila Folders
- qwertox 2y agoThis is the kind of work billionaires should pay millions for as if it were a painting, and display it proudly.
- foxglacier 2y agoI'm sure he'd have plenty of offers if he was going to sell it. As long as it really requires a decade of work to produce, somebody might value it at the labor cost as a kind of proof-of-work. But what if he does another copy in only few months by reusing all the part designs? Its value could be destroyed. Probably has to become famous then die so that there's no chance of the same creator flooding the market.
- 0_____0 2y agoSomeone made a comment here regarding magic recently that this reminded me of. Sometimes you can make something appear magical by spending far more time on the effect than anyone would ever think to do. Stunning work. I admire and envy the focus.
- hinkley 2y agoThe same can be true of magic. Penn and Teller’s Fool Us had a couple of contestants per year that did a trick the hardest way possible. A couple times they gave the person the prize even though they knew how it was done. Like the people who “shuffled” an entire deck into a specific order, and/or used precise cuts rather than using marked cards or swapping the deck. There have been a couple people they’ve had back three times even if they knew how they did it, because they’re just so good.
- ska 2y ago> Sometimes you can make something appear magical by spending far more time on the effect than anyone would ever think to do. This is as good a definition of stage magic as anything, I suspect.
- hinkley 2y agoComedy has some of the same. Some comedians look like they're just rambling through random ideas that have popped into their heads, when in fact it's a patter they've been practicing for months and months. I have a lot of respect for the ones who can hide the seams between their various jokes and make them look like the funny uncle at family gatherings just riffing off of people or themselves for an hour.
- ajcp 2y agoIt's funny you say that because whenever I see a standup special and the comedian seems to randomly be prompted by something they see in the audience/off camera that leads them down a bespoke, yet perfect response/thread I have to think they are just making the prompt up.
- thechao 2y agoAt UT Austin, there was a Physics class called "Pseudoscience" taught by Rory Coker(?). The class was on precisely the topic mentioned; it was a graded attendance-based class. (You lost a grade letter for every 1–2 classes you skipped.) Rory was a master class mentalist — literally world famous. When other world class magicians were on the continent or passing through they'd come visit him. Invariably, he'd make them do a 10m opener for the class (usually mentalist, illusion, and close up). Did I mention the class average was a C? Anyways, for the final, Rory did his trick: he chatted to us for a few minutes, drawing a picture; then we all had ~30s to draw a picture. Then, he chatted with some people — kinda at random — then picked one person to seal their picture in an envelope. At the end of the class was the reveal: he'd drawn this picture the girl drew. More importantly, just about everyone drew the same picture. Then he made his point: depending on how he was feeling, there were about a half dozen pictures he could get an audience to draw. Eye opening.
- the_af 2y agoTo be clear: if they absolutely know how the magician did it, they do NOT award the prize. They do award the prize if they know there's more than one way the person could have done it, but they cannot tell for sure which one was it. And they make it clear their show is not about the prize anyway, it's about the wonder of watching cool magic acts. The prize is a gimmick (but still, it's always fair and never staged). They always celebrate good magic, regardless of whether they can figure it out or not.
- WalterBright 2y agoOffering a prize tends to bring out the best in people.
- the_af 2y ago> Offering a prize tends to bring out the best in people. If I remember correctly, the prize is a hook for the producers, it's how they got approval for the show. It's not for the performers, which I guess are simply thrilled to perform for P&T and their audience. Interesting that I got downvoted for stating what Penn has stated again and again in their podcast. I guess people find it hard to believe these two guys truly do what they claim to do: award the prize to people who truly fool them, and celebrate all magic acts regardless of whether they are fooled. They've also stated the prize is an excuse for the show. They are on record stating this, it's not my guesswork, yet somehow saying this earned me a downvote. Oh well.
- hinkley 2y agoThe prize was an appearance at their Vegas show in addition to the trophy. They have broken their own rules a couple times.
- the_af 2y agoLike when? Without a clear cut example where they admit it, this is just a rumor. Why would they break their rule?
- stevage 2y agoYeah or the guy who can pour a whole deck of cards onto the table and grab the right card out of the air. It's not a trick, he's just insanely practised at it.
- WalterBright 2y agoI was chatting with an elderly friend one day, and a housefly buzzed by. He casually snatched it out of the air and crushed it. I was amazed. Howinell did he snatch a fly out of the air? He replied that he spent a couple years in a bed in the hospital recovering from war wounds, with nothing to do. So he practiced catching flies.
- the_af 2y agoAnd in the show he picked a bunch of cards because he got nervous, which kinda spoiled the trick. Apparently in other sessions he was able to pick a single card. Insane!
- lisper 2y agoThe detail on this thing is just insane. The amount of time and effort put in is comparable to what it takes to build an actual aircraft. [UPDATE] Just to clarify: building an actual jetliner is obviously orders of magnitude harder than building this model. But I think building this model is probably comparable to building a light aircraft like this one: https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-14/ https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-14/
- 4gotunameagain 2y ago[flagged]
- lisper 2y agoOh yeah, I should clarify: I didn't mean that building this model was comparable to building an actual airliner. But I do think it's comparable to building, say, an RV-14 (https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-14/ https://www.vansaircraft.com/rv-14/).
- Loughla 2y agoJesus can you relax? Sometimes statements aren't meant to be taken exactly literally. I don't mean to be hateful but what do you get out of being needlessly pedantic? Obviously there's more time actually spent on modern airliners. OP is using it as an analogy to show that it's a complicated process, and isn't saying that it's scientifically 1 to 1 exact. It's this type of comment that makes people be needlessly careful on this site more than any other. When you know there is someone just waiting to correct you when you use a simple turn of phrase.
- psygn89 2y agoMaybe the person is on the spectrum or something and has trouble with understanding nuances and figurative language, who knows.
- pvorb 2y agoYour parent comment just seems to make their point and it's technically correct, but might have missed the nuance. All people in this conversation seemed fine. Are you sure that the following doesn't apply to your own comment? > It's this type of comment that makes people be needlessly careful on this site more than any other.
- Liftyee 2y agoI cannot begin to comprehend how this was put together. Unbelievable amounts of dedication must have been involved.
- black_13 2y ago[dead]
- ComputerGuru 2y ago(2014) I remember seeing this when it was first making the rounds (though I thought it was earlier than ‘14, but that’s what all the press links date to). Incredible.
- mzs 2y agoHe's been at it since May 2008 and the latests updates on instagram are from this year: https://www.instagram.com/luca.iaconi.stewart/ https://www.instagram.com/luca.iaconi.stewart/
- ComputerGuru 2y agoThanks for (possibly) vindicating my memory! I recall seeing this circa 2010 +/- a year or so.
- polishdude20 2y agoHow does he come up with the 2d designs? They need to all fit together right? I feel like there some missing step between the reference material and the 2D illustrator designs.
- gavmor 2y agoI'm interested in this, too! I've been mulling over the design of 3D puzzles from 2D, laser-cut MDF.
- gibspaulding 2y agoLook into Fusion360. I’ve used it for similar projects in the past with some success.
- noduerme 2y agoI've never tried it, but I wonder if designing in 3D and then printing out UV maps would be a good way to go? You'd at least end up with all the polygons and an outer shape to cut out, although whether you could fold paper along the edges is another story.
- SvenL 2y agoOn one page he mentioned that the airline supplied material which he used to create the designs in Adobe Illustrator.
- gibspaulding 2y agoThis threw me off too. Sure Illustrator is probably a better tool for this than pen and paper, but it seems like far from the best choice. I guess that just makes this all the more impressive.
- ninalanyon 2y agoIf only I had this degree of focus and willingness to work so hard on all the boring bits!
- fsckboy 2y ago>all the boring bits your problem is not focus or willingness, it's being motivated by excitement rather than perfection. it's about the object, take yourself and how you feel out of the equation.
- berkes 2y agoThis is also a personality trait. Where ADHD has this in the extreme. I, having ADHD, cannot do any task if it's not motivated by excitement and newness (or forced by raw discipline, which is extremely energy consuming). Your comment sounds like "it's just a matter of changing your mindset". Maybe I read that wrong. But I know it's not just mindset changing. It's, e.g. with ADHD fundamentally wired into a brain.
- dylan604 2y agoFor people that enjoy this type of work, what you call the boring bits are the exciting parts.
- 0_____0 2y agoThe act is the reward. If you can convince yourself this is true for various things, you get really good at them fast.
- ninalanyon 2y agoOf course. Bit it's an awfully big IF.
- BillSaysThis 2y agoIf he adds AI, can he make it fly?
- SAI_Peregrinus 2y agoWith the application of sufficient force, any object can be made to fly at least once. No AI necessary.
- froggertoaster 2y agoHumans are just amazing.
- hk__2 2y agoAt first I was confused by this "Made from Manila folders" which I didn’t know; I thought these folders were some kind of information from something that happened in Manila, and that the author did the scale model based on what he had found in them
- loloquwowndueo 2y agoYeah and goldbeater’s skin is not literally the skin of the actual person who beats the gold :)
- lizzas 2y agoLike Manila is some tax haven that has had a wikileak?
- JBiserkov 2y agohttp://wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Papers
- numpad0 2y agoYup, it's name of a thing, what gave icons of "file folders" a distinct notch and tan color. They were stored in "file cabinets", which can be still seen in Windows .cab file icons.
- fnord77 2y agohope this ends up in a museum
- ffitch 2y agoit’s very inspiring! I wonder why manila envelopes. does envelope paper have properties uniquely fitted for this kind of modeling, or is it just nice color and suitable weight?
- idlewords 2y agoThese are folders, not envelopes. They are pretty stiff and hold their shape well. I bet any light card stock would do, but everyone of a certain age has experience with these folders; the fact that they're so basic makes this achievement extra special.
- ffitch 2y agoI meant the folders, sorry! Is age the factor here? feels like they’re just as ubiquitous today as they were when the author was in high school. I certainly appreciate the idea of crafting something special out of seemingly boring material, but the remark that they were taught to model with this paper in school made me wonder of it does have advantages over basic paper or cardstock.
- 0_____0 2y agoI think it may be that it's a fairly uniform thickness across manufacturers, whereas if you are getting cardstock from different places you would need to pay attention to paper weights (gsm).
- pseingatl 2y agoThe model looks cleaner than the aircraft's business class IRL, if recent videos are to be believed.
- idlewords 2y agoTo restore balance we need someone to make Manila folders out of a 777.
- _yb2s 2y agoAnd then a full scale flying 777 from Manila folders
- datavirtue 2y agoElons next project.
- lizzas 2y agoAnd fly it to the Philippines
- PaulRobinson 2y agoI don't think Boeing need more ideas to cut costs and quality in engineering right now...
- delichon 2y ago"The Ultimate Paper Airplane | WIRED" Ahem. https://newatlas.com/great-paper-airplane-project/21961/ https://newatlas.com/great-paper-airplane-project/21961/ IMHO the actual flight characteristics of the aircraft are inputs to the `ultimate?` predicate function.
- kepler1 2y agoMade out of manilla file folders is approximately correct for the state of Air India's fleet right now.
- polairscience 2y agoI'll comment on something different. His website is clean and awesome. Attention to detail just like the model. Love it.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sema4hacker 2y agoExactly how many millions of hours did this take?
- stevesimmons 2y agoThe Singapore Airlines clip says that one took 750 hours and had 3000 parts.
- aaronax 2y agoFor something vaguely similar, as in a meticulous way of making a 3D object out of 2D materials with fine details, I recommend the Metal Earth products (puzzles?) as I find them to be quite rewarding. The complexity is probably two orders of magnitude less--think 10-20 hours to assemble the pre-designed and cut pieces.
- einpoklum 2y agoI sympathize with how he must feel thinking about the 777-8 and 777-9 entering service soon, displacing the 300ER... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777X https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_777X
- exabrial 2y agoThese planes are incredible to ride on. AA runs a Charlotte <-> Munich flight... the Premium Economy exceeds expectations for the money, like sleeping in a lay-z-boy.
- foooorsyth 2y agoPremium economy to MUC out of CLT always annoys me because the legs that hold the seats up can possibly be right in the middle of your under-seat space, making putting a briefcase under the seat in front of you impossible (the legs are unevenly spaced throughout the row so not all seats lose the space). They also have those fold-down footrests that I never actually use and take up more space. Paying more for a seat in which I might not even be able to access my work laptop is a bit annoying. Man, I sound like a diva.
- exabrial 2y agoI feel like any class of seating except business suffers from that "near seat storage shortage". I tend to carry a soft sided satchel instead of a case for the reasons you state: it can be jammed pretty much anywhere
- foooorsyth 2y agoWell in this case on the return flight I’m usually booked regular economy, and regular economy has no under seat space loss. I’m able to work the entire flight back from Europe on the cheaper ticket.
- datavirtue 2y agoI would get a high from the first two or three seats...and then....I would abandon the project.
- zombiwoof 2y agoAmazing
- andrewshadura 2y agoI've looked up what the hell is a manila folder, and it turned out to be a paper folder looking exactly like a Windows folder icon, even with a matching yellowish colour. Maybe I grew up and lived in all the wrong countries, but I've never seen such a folder in my life.
- matthewmcg 2y agoThis is wonderful. The loving dedication to getting the details right reminds me of the engineer hobbyist that built a functional scale model of a Ferrari 312PB race car as shown on this classic Top Gear episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeUMDY01uUA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeUMDY01uUA
- mNovak 2y agoWould love to see the files or precut sheets released as the ultimate scale model kit. It'd be really awesome to take these files to a laser cutter and make the model out of thin aluminum sheets.
- blt 2y agoExcellent choice of aircraft. The 777 is one of the greatest engineering achievements of all time.
- tedd4u 2y agoPosted here 4 years ago (885 points / 200 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23749821 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23749821
- netfortius 2y agoLooking at the picture captured in the youtube link, I wonder what kind of bolts are being used for the door?!? ;-)
- wasabinator 2y agoThis is amazing. I’d feel safer flying in this than the original.
- cloud-ranger 2y agoThere's obviously a high level of skill involved... However, if you want to experince the late 80's, change the playback speed of the landing gear video to 0.75 :D I'm assuming the guy doesn't have kids or cats, I can't even make a cup of coffee most days without one being in the way! I used to love to make things when I was younger but I was never this dedicated. I stopped at radio controlled models. I'm glad my mum bought me a TI99/4A when I was a a kid, so my hobby turned into my career.
- globalnode 2y ago1:60 scale model... i got excited for a moment based on the (misleading) title.
- ChrisMarshallNY 2y agoThis is an awesome project! Someone (with copious free time) is just a wee bit obsessive. Hate to say it, but I can sort of relate (but I don't have enough free time to do something this intricate).
- fasa99 2y agoFor sure, a lot of hard work and energy went into this project. Some say that if Boeing had that kind of energy, their planes might even fly!
- nelblu 2y agoThe amount of dedication, passion and art is absolutely amazing. It reminds me of https://www.phildragash.com/ https://www.phildragash.com/ where he did a complete audio of the Lord of the Rings book along with music edited from the actual soundtrack. I believe it can still be downloaded from here https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_soundscape-by-phil-dragash https://archive.org/details/the-fellowship-of-the-ring_sound...
- hurtmyknee 2y agoThis is terrific, thank you for sharing!
- timnetworks 2y agoDoing this all by hand shows immense skill, but printing directly onto manilla folders is talent and ingenuity.
- xiphmont 2y agoMy God, that model is utterly beautiful.
- nunez 2y agoWow; this is amazing. I was looking into who makes their seats for business/first (I usually assume it's Rockwell Collins but it might not be) and was shocked to see how old their product is on this aircraft. The business class seats look like those from the 90s!
- rayiner 2y agoAir India... The 777s were purchased new in the early 2000s and not upgraded since then. https://www.businessinsider.com/air-india-economy-cabin-i-flew-miserable-bad-seats-review-2024-2 https://www.businessinsider.com/air-india-economy-cabin-i-fl...
- nunez 2y agodefinitely looks the part.