Five years in the making, this 1:60 scale reproduction of a Boeing 777 is made entirely out of precisely cut manila folders and dabs of glue. Inspired by his high school architecture class and his love of planes, Luca Iaconi-Stewart started constructing his complicated jetliner in 2008 when he was just a junior in high school.
Using super-detailed blueprints of an Air India 777-300ER that he found online, Iaconi-Stewart recreated the designs in Adobe Illustrator and then printed them directly onto manila folders. The engines took him a month to design and another four to assemble, while the passenger seats required the efforts of an entire summer. It took roughly 20 minutes to construct an economy seat, four to six hours for business class and eight hours for first class.
Nearly everything is functional from the landing gear that retracts into the fuselage, to the hatches and doors with their different hinge and locking mechanisms. Iaconi-Stewart is so particular about his craft that he has actually built two airplanes, the one pictured here and numerous failed attempts, including three tails and two entire sets of wings.
Iaconi-Stewart is already toying with the idea of building an even bigger model 20-ft long when this project is finished.
