Ken Blackburn (born March 24, 1963) is the former

Guinness World Record ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

holder for

paper airplane A paper plane (also known as a paper airplane in American English or paper aeroplane in British English) is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of single folded sheet of paper or paperboard. A simple nose-heavy paper plane, thrown like ...

s (time aloft). His first set the record in 1983 (16.89 seconds), resetting it in 1987 (17.2 sec), 1994 (18.8 sec) lost the record in 1996 and set the record of 27.6 seconds on 10/8/98 in the

Georgia Dome The Georgia Dome was a domed stadium in the Southeastern United States. Located in Atlanta between downtown to the east and Vine City to the west, it was owned and operated by the State of Georgia as part of the Georgia World Congress Center ...

. He currently lives with his wife in

Fort Walton Beach, Florida Fort Walton Beach is a city in southern Okaloosa County, Florida. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 20,922, up from 19,507 in 2010. It is the principal city of the Fort Walton Beach− Crestview− Destin Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

and works for

The United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Signal ...

as an

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is si ...

doing research with the Air Force at

Eglin Air Force Base Eglin Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base in the western Florida Panhandle, located about southwest of Valparaiso in Okaloosa County. The host unit at Eglin is the 96th Test Wing (formerly the 96th Air Base Wing). The ...

. He is married with no children, and has two dogs. He was born in

Oxnard, California Oxnard () is a city in Ventura County, California, United States. On California's South Coast, it is the most populous city in Ventura County and the 22nd-most-populous city in California. Incorporated in 1903, Oxnard lies approximately west ...

on March 24, 1963. His family moved around the country for a few years as dad worked for

Western Electric The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...

When he was about 4 years old, they settled in

Kernersville, North Carolina Kernersville is a town in Forsyth County and the largest suburb of Winston-Salem. The town is located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. A small portion of the town is also in Guilford County. The population was 26,481 at the 2020 census, u ...

on a 56-acre farm with horses, cows, chickens, ... he attended

North Carolina State University North Carolina State University (NC State) is a public land-grant research university in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded in 1887 and part of the University of North Carolina system, it is the largest university in the Carolinas. The universit ...

from 1981 to 1985 when he graduated second in his class with his BS in Aeronautical Engineering. Then he accepted is job with

McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor, formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produ ...

in St. Louis, Missouri working in fighter aircraft fuel system research. Two years later he switched to the aerodynamics department, where he has since worked on the YF-23, F/A-18, AV-8B, T-45, and research in the Phantom Works. The company merged with Boeing in 1997, so along the way he became a

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

employee. In 2004 he left his job at Boeing to work for Jacobs Engineering at Eglin Air Force Base performing research on small unmanned air vehicles.

External links

*Ken Blackburn's Paper Airplanes. (2008). About Ken. Consulted on July 1, 2017. Available in: http://paperplane.org/about.html 1963 births Living people American aerospace engineers {{US-engineer-stub