I remember as a boy making paper planes

They never flew very far

Usually nose diving or skewing sideways

I kept trying to make them fly straight and long

I remember one day at a family gathering

An Uncle called me over

He took a sheet of newspaper

Expertly folded it into a paper plane

If flew straight and far

Almost hung in the air

It was simple yet graceful

I played with it for days

You may think he was an expert

With aeronautical training

Perhaps a PhD in physics

He was a hard working dock laborer with no science training

Later in life I went to engineering school

Discovered the physics behind flying

Learned equations for fluid flow

Analyzed lift and drag for wing shapes

Once I had learned how to design wings

I tried making paper planes for my kids

Despite my aeronautical science training

My paper planes never flew that well

Because my designs only worked on paper