Truly, aerospace engineering is an endeavor that combines both art and science. Since creativity isn’t a skill typically associated with engineering, we needed to find a tangible way to demonstrate its significance. As a result, Boeing Flypaper was born. In celebration of Boeing’s centennial year, Boeing engineers created new, aerodynamically effective paper airplane designs that were then turned into a series of colorful, foldable posters—technology you can hold in your hands. Beautiful on the wall. Beautiful in flight. Beautifully designed to rekindle the wonder of flight and engage young, potential engineers.

Once the paper airplanes were aerodynamically engineered, the designs were printed on 80# McCoy Silk (cover and text) using PMS colors printed over Chrome Ink. A spot varnish was added to enhance certain areas of the plane, and score lines were also added—not only for functionality of folding, but as an aesthetic element to the design. Boeing100.com is also printed as part of the design, which features how the project came to life, the Boeing engineers who contributed, and more information on careers in aerospace engineering.

Boeing Flypaper posters are currently included in Chicago Public Library’s 2016 Summer Activity Book for children. The insertions feature the designs with an emphasis on folding and cutting instructions to allow the younger demographic to successfully interact with Flypaper.

Boeing Flypaper is changing the perception of aerospace engineering. The visual nature of the posters gives tangible value to creativity in engineering using something all can recognize, and the digital world can’t duplicate—a paper airplane.

The posters were sold and displayed in Boeing Stores across the U.S. and folded by children using the Chicago Public Library’s Summer Activity Book. We’re anticipating 10,000 visitors at Unfolded based on previous exhibition traffic. In addition, a feature article about Flypaper was published in the February issue of Frontiers magazine. 77,000 issues are published each month and the online version logs 400,000–500,000 monthly page views. The article can also be found on boeing100.com.