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  • (xylophone music)

  • - [Luca] I build models sometimes with weird materials.

  • I've always found aviation to just be really kind

  • of magical just because airplanes are engineering marvels.

  • And I wanted to marry that

  • with the unconventional building technique.

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  • (xylophone music)

  • - [Luca] For my day job I work in IT and management.

  • but I've just always been creatively-minded.

  • I've always been drawn to those kinds of projects.

  • I've been making things since I could figure out

  • what tape and string were.

  • I was super young.

  • I probably drove my parents crazy.

  • I'm best known for the paper airplane models that I make.

  • What I use to build the models is manila folder,

  • glue,

  • an X-ACTO,

  • and a straight edge, essentially.

  • It's hard to know exactly how many folders I've gone through

  • but I would say it's in the hundreds for this project,

  • and there's a lot of scrap left over.

  • I kept it to a minimal set of materials

  • just because I like the challenge of building something

  • from only one thing and having to figure out how

  • to make that serve many purposes.

  • The model began on a much less detailed scale.

  • But I did, over time, realize

  • that I could start building in more.

  • Articulating functions,

  • more details in the interior.

  • And inside there are tissues in the bathroom.

  • There are lights on the seats.

  • Nothing actually moves in the cabin

  • but all the detail is there.

  • I've always just found the triple seven

  • to be a really elegant,

  • nicely proportioned plane.

  • And so it was partly an issue of aesthetics.

  • I've always just been a fan of that particular model.

  • I studied pictures online.

  • Some technical drawings.

  • I actually create my own plans,

  • and there's just no guide for how to do that,

  • so I'm basically learning along the way.

  • It's simultaneously kind of freeing

  • and also really frustrating not to have plans.

  • I can really take it in any direction.

  • But you have to be incredibly inventive about

  • how you solve problems because it really hasn't been done.

  • A lot of people probably think that my end game

  • was absolute perfection with the model,

  • but in fact it was more just about the process of making it.

  • It's the thought of the completed product

  • that inspires me and just being able

  • to solve such a complex problem.

  • It's just what I derive a lot of satisfaction from.

(xylophone music)

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