Boeing Celebrates 100 Years in Aerospace with Flypaper Project
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This article originally appeared in The Innovation Issue of APEX Experience.
APEX Insight: Combining art and ingenuity, Boeing set out to build the most aerodynamically engineered posters in the world.
On July 15, 2016, Boeing marks its centennial, celebrating 100 years of its evolution into one of the world’s largest aerospace companies. The theme of the centennial is inspired by the famous words of Bill Boeing: “Build something better.” To explore this concept, Boeing engineers have gone back to basics with paper airplanes, or the Flypaper Project.
“The Flypaper Project was born through a collaborative project between the Boeing company and our ad agency, FCB,” explains Marcellus Rolle, program specialist for the Boeing centennial anniversary. “The idea was to be innovative and creative; to combine art and science, reawakening the aerospace engineer in us all. We wanted to do something that could be beautiful, creative and visually appealing but at the same time have a purpose. And that’s where Flypaper began.”
“The idea was to be innovative and creative, to combine art and science.” – Marcellus Rolle, Boeing
Boeing aerospace engineers were challenged to rethink the traditional paper airplane in an imaginative yet functional manner. Designs combined engineering, science and artwork into user-friendly paper airplane instructions, complete with fold lines, demonstrating how to create a Boeing-engineered paper airplane to rival childhood models.
“We took several designs and narrowed it down to three engineers and four designs. We used those as our baseline for Flypaper,” says Rolle. “It was a great opportunity for them to step outside of their everyday job, think creatively and apply their knowledge of aerospace engineering innovation to the concept of something fundamentally simple yet incredibly complex.”
The selected engineers, Alexandra Sonnabend, Elizabeth Benson and Mahesh Chengalva, transformed the age-old craft of the paper airplane by weaving experience with centennial-inspired innovation. The project received recognition at the 2015 Cannes Lions International Festival for Creativity.
Boeing plans to integrate Flypaper designs into its education outreach programs as well as make designs available publically. The Flypaper Project will gain momentum in the coming months as the centennial celebrations pick up speed.
For a closer look at Boeing’s paper airplanes, visit boeing-flypaper.com