Let’s create an amazing origami helicopter and enjoy a wonderful experience combining imagination and creativity perfectly. This origami helicopter includes a fuselage, two landing gears, a main rotor, and a tail rotor. These components enhance the visual realism and give the origami helicopter a dynamic effect. With the two landing gears, the finished product can stand on any flat surface. Place it in a display cabinet, and it will be a standout piece in your handmade collection.
If you are new to origami, start here from our beginner guide to know the basics and how to read the step-by-step instructions.
- Folding time: 30 minutes
- Paper: 15×15 cm / 2
- Difficulty: Advanced
Material
Prepare two pieces of 15×15 cm origami square paper to create a 14.5×8 cm origami helicopter. Feel free to experiment with different colors of paper.
Step by Step Instructions
Step 1
Take one piece of paper, place it with the desired display side facing up, fold it in half horizontally, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Fold it in half vertically, and unfold it.
Step 2
Flip the paper from left to right.
Step 3
Fold the bottom right edge to align with the top left edge, and unfold it.
Fold the bottom left edge to align with the top right edge, and unfold it.
Step 4
Mountain fold the left and right creases and bring the left, right, and top points to meet the bottom point. Flatten the fold to get a small square.
Step 5
Fold the bottom left and right edges of the top layer to align with the vertical crease, crease them well, and unfold them.
Step 6
Mountain fold the two creases you made in the previous step indicated by the red dotted lines, bring up the top layer along the black dotted line, and push the left and right corners toward the center. Finally, fold down the top triangle.
Step 7
Flip the paper from left to right.
Step 8
Fold the bottom left and right edges of the top layer to align with the vertical crease, crease them well, and unfold them.
Step 9
As you did in step 6, mountain fold the two creases you made in the previous step indicated by the red dotted lines, bring up the top layer along the black dotted line, and push the left and right corners toward the center. Finally, fold down the top triangle.
Step 10
Fold the bottom right and left edges to align with the vertical crease in the middle, then unfold them 90 degrees so that the two flaps stand vertically. Finally, open the openings of the two flaps and press down the layer in the middle of the paper.
Step 11
Bring up the two edges along the vertical crease as the first picture shows, then lift the bottom point of this flap along the dotted lines [picture 2]. Press down the left and right layers of this flap and fold this flap to the left side [pictures 3 to 5]
Step 12
Turn over the paper from left to right.
Step 13
Repeat step 10, fold the bottom right and left edges to align with the vertical crease in the middle, then unfold them 90 degrees so that the two flaps stand vertically. Finally, open the openings of the two flaps and press down the layer in the middle of the paper.
Step 14
Bring up the two edges along the vertical crease as the first picture shows, then lift the bottom point of this flap along the dotted lines [picture 2]. Press down the left and right layers of this flap and fold this flap to the right side [pictures 3 to 5]
Step 15
Rotate the paper 90 degrees from back to front, and create two mountain creases on the top flap, indicated by the red dotted lines. Then, valley fold its middle crease and flatten the fold.
Step 16
Repeat this for the bottom flap.
Create two mountain creases on this flap, indicated by the red dotted lines. Then, valley fold its middle crease and flatten the fold.
Finally, rotate the paper 90 degrees to lay it flat.
Step 17
Rotate the paper 90 degrees clockwise.
Step 18
Fold the top flap to the left side along the black dotted line, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Step 19
Rotate the paper 90 degrees from front to back, expand the top opening, fold the right point to the left side along the crease indicated by the black dotted line, and then bring up this point 90 degrees and make a stand upright small flap. Finally, close the opening of the paper and make the opening of this small flap face left.
Step 20
View the paper from the right side and rotate it 90 degrees from front to back, press down the small flap’s top tip and cut it a little. Finally, rotate the paper 90 degrees from back to front to lay it flat.
Step 21
Fold down the top left corner of the fuselage section of the helicopter along the dotted line connecting two red spots. Then, rotate the paper 180 degrees from left to right, and fold down the top right corner along the dotted line connecting two red spots.
Step 22
Fold the bottom right corner of the top layer backward along the red dotted line, and fold up the bottom right corner of the bottom layer along the black dotted line.
Step 23
Take out another piece of paper and place it with the desired display side facing down. Fold it in half horizontally, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Step 24
Fold it in half vertically, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Step 25
Fold the right edge to align with the vertical crease, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Step 26
Fold the bottom edge to align with the horizontal crease, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Step 27
Fold the bottom edge to align with the crease you made in the previous step, leaving a crease, and unfold it.
Cut the paper along the creases indicated by the dotted lines, as you can see in the third picture.
Step 28
Fold these four paper strips in half horizontally from bottom to top.
Step 29
Glue them together in pairs to get two crosses.
Step 30
Glue the larger cross on top of the helicopter as the main rotor.
Step 31
Glue the small one to the tail as the tail rotor.
What’s Next
Now you have completed making this cute origami helicopter. Next, check out our other origami tutorials. Happy folding!
Our origami X-Wing is as cool as this origami helicopter. Its unique shape shows the speed and power of the aircraft as if it can really fly into the clouds.
The origami tank, with its sturdy appearance and heavy texture, recreates the majestic posture on the battlefield. These two projects are not only visually impactful, but also can exercise your patience and hands-on ability during the production process.
Origami X-Wing
Origami Tank
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