The reason this flies well is that it is a proper airplane. Most paper airplane designs I have seen don't have a horizontal stabilizer, which will usually doom the plane to crash.
Without a tail section, most airplanes are unstable in the pitch plane - the resultant force from the aerodynamic lift doesn't work from the same point on the wing as the center of gravity. An additional horizontal lift surface is required to make sure the plane doesn't pitch up and stall.
The point the author makes about the center of gravity is good - with the center of gravity far forward, the airplane will have a smaller angle of attack (and hence less lift) for any given airspeed, and hence the plane will end up in stable flight at a higher speed, with a resulting higher margin for how strong gusts are required for it to stall and crash.
This is pretty basic applied aerodynamics, but not very common knowledge among the kindergarten teachers who teach the art of making paper airplanes.
This thing might fly if you remove the tail, because the center of gravity is far below the resultant lift center - there is some trick here that can allow you to get by without a horizontal stabilizer. Paragliders and hang gliders use this, but I don't know why it works. Actually, the instructions on this site are pretty neat and probably a good way to learn about practical aerodynamics. On the "how to fly" page, they explain how you can trim the plane for higher or lower speeds by adjusting the tail section and making "flaps" - changing the shape of the wing in order to alter the lift coefficient (how much lift you get at a given airspeed and angle of attack)
Without a tail section, most airplanes are unstable in the pitch plane - the resultant force from the aerodynamic lift doesn't work from the same point on the wing as the center of gravity. An additional horizontal lift surface is required to make sure the plane doesn't pitch up and stall.
The point the author makes about the center of gravity is good - with the center of gravity far forward, the airplane will have a smaller angle of attack (and hence less lift) for any given airspeed, and hence the plane will end up in stable flight at a higher speed, with a resulting higher margin for how strong gusts are required for it to stall and crash.
This is pretty basic applied aerodynamics, but not very common knowledge among the kindergarten teachers who teach the art of making paper airplanes.
This thing might fly if you remove the tail, because the center of gravity is far below the resultant lift center - there is some trick here that can allow you to get by without a horizontal stabilizer. Paragliders and hang gliders use this, but I don't know why it works. Actually, the instructions on this site are pretty neat and probably a good way to learn about practical aerodynamics. On the "how to fly" page, they explain how you can trim the plane for higher or lower speeds by adjusting the tail section and making "flaps" - changing the shape of the wing in order to alter the lift coefficient (how much lift you get at a given airspeed and angle of attack)