Lefties beware

Oui, et ils emmerdent tout le monde.

Weighting: 20g (15g at the tip and 5g at the elbow)

Distance: 100 m reported by Herb Smith, although with quite a breeze

[2001] This is the boomerang Herb Smith used to set his Guiness Book World Record throw of 108 yards (98 m) at the Littlehampton Sports Field in Sussex, United Kingdom, on 17th June 1972. The boomerang was heavily weighted with lead inserted into both wingtips. There is another small weight on the elbow to give the boomerang a lower flight trajectory and allow it to return on a more horizontal plane. Dont insert the elbow weight into the material, it substantially weakens the boomerang, rather use adhesive tape. You may use Herbs airfoil (see high-resolution plan), which has bevels, or our proposed airfoil, which has an undercut. The World Record Gem had a massive weight of 240 g and required a monster arm for throwing. Accounts of people having seen Herb throwing report that his throw was very powerful indeed. Looking back it seems like a miracle to be able to throw a boomerang of THAT shape 100 m out and back ! It is only accomplished with brute force and a good wind. In the late 70s and 80s, Herb designed a plethora of more sophisticated LD boomerangs, treasures and precious collectables today, for example the famous Sussex Hook, Marathon, Tigarang, Mount Fuji, Ninja etc.

Weighting: 20g (15g at the tip and 5g at the elbow)

Distance: 100 m + with a breeze of 7 MPH

Here are two of the famous LD-boomerangs by the late Herb A. Smith. During his experiments, Herb designed a large number of shapes. Most of the modern LD shapes can be related to one of his boomerangs, even the Challenger III. So if anybody out there has the intention to find his or her own design it was most probably already found by the man from Sussex, England. On the download plan, Herb has added a few notes: there is a sketch of the flightpath and hints concerning weighting and tuning.

Weighting: none

Distance: ca. 40 m

Here is another famous LD-boom by Herb A. Smith, the 'Sussex Hook'. The plan shown here was made using an original hook, made in April 1994. Since there is no weight on the boomerang, the range is only about 40m. Herb made different 'Sussex Hooks', varying size and material (paxolin or wood). Herb used a Sussex Hook with a distance of 65 yards (~60m) to throw around the Wahsington Monument in the year 1976.

Weight: 136g

Weighting: none

Distance: 120 m (max 120m written on the original boom)

[2001] Bob Burwell of Australia was one of the main figures of LD in the 1970s and early 1980s. He broke the World Record several times during that period. The rules were somewhat different from what we have today, though. The distance was measured only on a straight line perpendicular to the throwing base line. So even if the boomerang went out further more to the right or left of that line, this extra distance was not accounted for. One of Bob's throws, measured at 111m with that method, was reported to go out at least 120m maximum distance slighlty off the perpendicular line. The plan is based on a boomerang Tibor got from Bob in 1998. It was probably built in the 1980s. It is heavy and thick, and the airfoil is VERY blunt on the wing tips. Sophisticated low lift / low drag airfoil design was only introduced later, among others by Volker Behrens. It is therefore only with brute force that you can get this boomerang to fly 120m out and back !

Weight: ~180g

Distance: 80 - 120m

[2002] This is another World Record boomerang. Al Gerhard attained a distance of 112 m in 1979 with this type of boomerang, a heavily weighted strip laminated hook. As the wooden strips are aligned with the shape of the boomerang, it is strong and more resistant to breaking than simple plywood, especially with the heavy weights embedded within the wingtips. Furthermore, to layers of strips with 4mm thickness are laminated together in double offset fashion to increase strength. At that time, paxolin and epoxy resin based materials were not used yet very commonly in the boomerang scene, probably because they were difficult to obtain as sheet material and one had to mix and harden the resin oneself. Al Gerhards was very tall and, apparently, he had a very powerful throw, which is necessary for this kind of boom. The material thickness if 7 mm, so there is a consideralbe airfoil drag, which has to be counteracted by the inital velocity of the boomerang, in order to make it return to the thrower after travelling for over 200 m.

Distance: 150-240 m

[1999] The World Record of 238 m was set with this boomerang by Manuel Schütz (Kloten 1999). It is obviously derived from the MegaQuirl and the Pathfinder II. Manuel says 150 m can be attained without the lead in the leading wing. In good conditions, he throws over 200 m. As you may know, the NASA Voyager (I and II) space probes, launched in 1977, are the most distant man-made objects. They are currently approaching the boundary of the solar system.
Manuel gave the details about how the airfoil needs to be carved. Download the full-size plan using the link for a detailed version, including airfoil crossections. As usual with Manu's booms, everything is perfectly rounded and smooth. The rough carving is carried out with a file, then sand paper is used from 40 to 1000 grain size. Manuel always works wet to absorb the dust. The airfoil is generally very sharp to minimize drag.
In a newer version of the airfoil, the trailing edges are carved concave, from the middle of the wing to its tip, the elbow region is not altered (The older version is shown shaded). This seems to bring about a significant reduction in drag, as we've noticed that the average velocity of the rang is much higher, especially in the last phase of the flight. Manu assumes that this airfoil reduces the wake (turbulence behind the airfoil) and thus the drag.
Tuning: a small positive dihedral on the leading wing (0.5-1 mm), possibly a small negative angle of attack (B WARE: the boom is very sensitive here - too much and you'll have a kylie.)
Throwing: wind angle 20 °, elevation 0-5 °, tilt angle 80 °, maximum spin and maximum throwing power !!! Hey, these are Manuel's hints ! If you know his throwing power, you can imagine what that means to ordinary people. At least I (Lorenz) am not able to throw the booms that Manu has adjusted to his throw; they tend to crash on their way back. By giving rotation, you stabilize the boom. In fact, Manuel usually throws 20 to 30 m farther with my rangs !

Distance: 120-160m

[2001] This is the original plan Manuel drew of his record breaking boomerang of 1998. It is obviously a MegaQuirl modification. It was designed around the period when a lander named Pathfinder was deployed on the surface of Mars by the NASA. The name actually reflects Manuel's effort in LD quite accurately. He noticed relatively early (1997) that Challenger sized booms were not ideal for throwing LD. The MegaQuirl had been around for some time, but nobody had Manuel's insight (and skill) and most people felt that a real LD boomerang must be Challenger sized. At one of Manuel's early LD tournaments (Troyes 1997) he broke the Swiss record (120.72m at that time) with a throw over 124.2 m with a MegaQuirl shape (pax 3mm). It did last only a few minutes, though, as I (Lorenz) threw 132.2 m with a Challenger III (GFEC 4mm !) a little later. This, however, was the last time I beat Manuel... Anyway, the Pathfinder was a milestone on Manuel's path to designing the most advanced LD shape we know, the Voyager I.

Distance: 70-80 m (postcard size), 100 m (full size)

[2001] The Makro was published in the IV/89 edition of the German Bumerang Welt magazine as a LongDistance postcard-size boomerang!! The shape has inwardly swept wing tips in order to fit the size of a postcard. Axel reported a measured distance (one spotter) of 70-80 m. Awesome for a boomerang that small ! Apparently, he also spent hours searching for the little boom in twilight. There was a diameter 10 mm lead weight on the leading arm. There are strong bevels on both wings, which is unusual for an LD boom, the one on the trailing arm being more pronounced.
A few years later, an article by Axel Heckner was published in the German Info, No. 37, March 1992, where he reports experiments with a large Makro (32.5 cm span). He stated that the inwardly swept wings of the Markro, originally introduced to fit the postcard size, actually represent an important feature for an LD boomerang: they have a low effectivity (term coined by Axel), which means they do not point towards the center of gravity. This results in a higher effective chord length, concomitant with a lower lift. Part of this theory was later implemented in his MegaQuirl design for the trailing wing. The leading wing of the MegaQuirl, however, is rather effective. Axel also confirms that making the trailing wing narrower that the leading wing, as seen for instance in the Challenger, gives better returning properties. It seems that the full size Makro has strong bevels as well. We do not think this is a good feature, so we have our own airfoil suggestion for wood and paxolin (see high-resolution plan).

Distance: 100-150m

[1997] The world record was held with this boomerang (paxolin) by Michel Dufayard. I (Lorenz) use the composite material, although it becomes rather heavy (170g) in the end. The Challenger III and variations are commonly used in LD tournaments, and I have always seen boomerangs similar to the ChallengerIII in the best scores. But it is not a rang for beginners as it needs stable throwing parameters. But if you manage to throw a properly weighted Challenger III, it will go far !

[2001] The reign of the Challenger III and Challenger type boomerangs (FullPower, Straight Shooter, Far, etc.) ended with the advent of competitive LD boomerangs derived from the MegaQuirl, i.e. Buzz Whip and Voyager type shapes. Being smaller and lighter, these are much easier to throw and handle and perform much better, and it is not unusual that beginners attain more than 100 or even 120 m on their first tournament.

Distance: wood: 110m, paxolin: 120-130m

[1998] People often think that this is a Challenger III. It is not. Michel sometimes uses the wooden FullPower at competitions and attains distances over 100m. The LD World Record for wooden boomerangs is held with this boomerang by Michel Dufayard (120 m, Troyes 1997). The paxolin version travels farther: Up to 130m have we witnessed. Eugène Cinal has a whole bunch of paxolin models and always throws very far. The return flight looks great. The boom sort of surfs back to the thrower.

[2001] We should point out that 130 m is not considered very far anymore these days...

Distance: ~100m

[2001] This is another famous boomerang by Volker Benhrens. The description on Volker's homepage www.blue-star-rangs.de is : This model also enables you to break the 100m barrier, but its full potential isn't quite as far as the Challenger III. Due to the narrower elbow it retains spin much better and makes it easier to get a full return, even with a catch.

Distance: ~110m

[2001] You might wonder what this boomerang's name means. LDPR simply stands for Long Distance Paxolin Rang. According to Gerhard, the design is derived from the Herb Smith model Black Prince. The LDPR is V-shaped with a small elbow region and therefore cannot go out extremely far. Moreover, you can expect that this elbow design will cause rather high wind drag. You need quite a strong arm, and a little wind, to get it to fly over 100m and all the way back. The trailing arm has distinctive LD characteristics, i.e. it is narrower than the leading wing and swept inwards, reducing thereby the effective lift. The leading arm does not have the hook feature, the forward swept wing tip. This wil theoretically give a wing with less lift and a small layover rate, the same features the Makro exhibits.

Distance: Paxolin: 80-90m (in a hurricane!)

[1997] This boom is not for low winds or anything under BFT 7. You may use this boom in very windy, very unstable conditions to attain an acceptable distance. The lead has to be placed underneath the tip of the wings. You need to carve an airfoil in the lead ! If you live in a very windy area, try this, if not: B WARE.

Distance: 80-110m

[1996] We built several Miniathlons in GFEC. They are just great: with a total weight of about 70g you can attain 80 to 100m, and its easy to throw. Just add weight on the leading arm to stabilize its flight and adjust range. We built the Miniathlon I also in 3.2mm carbonfiber/epoxy composite. Since this material is stiffer, we xeroxed the shape to 115%. The material is light, so only little weight is added. With 10g on the leading arm,110m are possible. If you choose to download the plan, you will get additional information about the airfoil. But we must advise you to be careful with undercut, especially if you use carbon fiber material. Begin with little undercut,you can always add more.

Distance: 80-100m

[1998] Georgi knowns a lot about aerodynamics. Especially known is his MTA named 'Vector'. But he has new ideas for airfoils especially for LD as well. Georgi has published a book about boomerangs called The BoomerangPuzzle.

Distance: 100m ?

[2001] Gordon Shuttleworth was probably the second most important LD thrower in Britain after Herb Smith. He held the national record over 103.5 m (set in Sedan, F, 1993) for 8 years. We are not sure if this is the record breaking boom, though. The plan was published in the German Bumerang Welt magazine, issue IV/90. The name of the boom is not clear, the plan was just titled Long Distance. It is possible that the shape is a variation of one of Herb Smith's designs, at least it looks very similar to one of them. The original material is 3mm paxolin, but we think 4mm pax or 3mm GFEC might work better (certainly it will be less prone to breaking). The full weighting is two holes of 12mm diameter on the leading wing filled with lead. Beginners are advised to use less weight. The airfoil is the same for both wings, so the plan only shows the crossections on one. It is not very aggressive, rather blunt leading edges and small undercuts. Actually, in the description of the plan it says that the boomerang has to be thrown DOWNwards, which is a clear indication of excesive lift.

Distance: 90-120m

[1997] The Mega-Quirl is derived from the widely known MTA named Quirl. Axel Heckner uses 3mm GFEC for this LD version. This shape is completely different from other LD Booms. It is very small and light. Therefore, it does not need a hard throw, it must be thrown rather like an Aussie Round boomerang. For throwers used to the heavy hook type, however, it might be hard to handle - at least for me (Lorenz). It is often seen at distance competitions in Europe.

Distance: 90-180m

[1998] That's the boomerang David Schummy used to set a new World Record (174 m, St. Louis 1998). Actually we are not quite sure which version accomplished the 174m, so we simply posted both for you to try out. I (Tibor) made several copies of both and am not sure which is better. I feel like the lower version works better in low wind conditions, while the upper shape works fine in nice winds. (Please if you are interested in purchasing one of Schummys boomerangs, proceede directly to his homepage: http://www.fixaframe.com.au/) I made copy in 4mm paxolin. It works well, but won't go all the wayout. However, I then decided to build an enlarged (119%) version and made it of 4mm pax. Works fine. The choice of material should definitly be a very rigid thin (2.5mm would be best I guess) composite. G10 gets warped quite fast after a few crashes. G11, a higher quality GFEC, should do the job.
The Schummy airfoil is very sophisticated. There are multi-step edges, changes in the center-line, built-in angles of attack an so on. So our Schummy airfoil is just a rough guess. However, we are sure that the leading edge is quite pointed and that the undercut is very pronounced, more than half the material thickness at some points.

Distance: 90-110m

[1998] Yes, here is a three-bladed LD boomerang !! Michel Dufayard hasa three-bladed model as well, named 'Satch Boogie' (Paxolin 3mm), which is reported to reach distances of 80-90m (with quite a breeze, though). Manuel Schütz took the famous Icerunner from Fridolin Frost, made it 'Mega' by inclining the blades even more to the front, carved an LD airfoil and added a ton of lead. Note that he used simple 5mm plywood. In competition, he threw 90m in dead calm conditions. In a light breeze,>100m can be obtained. Additional information about the airfoil can be found on the plan. There are lead weights inside 20mm (!) diameter holes on the wingtips.

Distance: 100-110m

[2002] This design is dated March 1997. Daniel Luycx held the Belgian record for some years at 101.90 m, set in Sedan, 1993. At that time, the distances were still measured with a steel tape, actually 2 or 3 50m steel tapes tied together with scotch. The laser rangefinder was only introduced in 1997. We don't know what boomerang Daniel used for this record.

Distance: 100-110m

[2001] This design is from the late Challenger era, dated August 1997. It is a combination of the Straight Shooter with the wing width of the Far. The airfoil is moderately aggressive, making it a safe performer with range of the order of 100-110m. Maïdo, meaning 'burnt land' is a stretch of land along one of the 3 craters of the volcano 'Piton des Neiges' on the island of Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Herman was inspired by the fantastic landscape while being there with his wife.

Distance: 120-150m

[1999] This strange shape was obtained rather by accident. Since Uwe Kitzberger from Germany showed up on tournaments he had been throwing his queston mark shaped boomerang, built of thin (2.5 - 3 mm GFEC or GFEC/CFEC) composite. But once during practice he lost one of his booms in the corn. When he found it some weeks (or months ?) later he noticed that the end of the trailing arm had been broken about 2/3 down. So he smoothed the wound and went throwing again, although he was sure that the boom wouldn't perform well. But he was wrong, it flew great...
The Ki- in the KiFisch stands for Kitzberger, by the way.

Distance: 100-130m

[2000] Ed writes: It started with Herman Peeter's idea to put most of the modern LD-booms on one drawing board and contruct a new average shape out of that. We both ended up with a different result though. Must be a matter of accents....
I made 2 versions of mine and it turned out to be a really nice flyer. Somehow it gains a lot of height at the most outer part of the flightpath and it has a narrow turn there giving it a quite save return (which I need looking at the last few competition results :-). It's not a very reliable measurement since we were only with the two of us (Lars Overzee and me), but the (rangefinder) distance was between 120 and 130 meters with most throws. Despite some variations in the (mostly symmetrical) airfoils, both versions flightpaths looked very similar. It could be that it's an easy to reproduce model.

Distance: 50-70 m

[1996] This is a boomerang especially for beginners of LongDistance. Please machine the airfoil according to the hints on the plan you will get by clicking above. The boom can be weighted on the leading arm. We adviseyou to experiment with airfoils and weighting on different spots on theboomerang. You w ill learn a lot !

[2001] Although there is some nostalgic value in this boomerang, if you want to start building and throwing LD, you will have the most success by building a Buzz Whip or Voyager straight away.

Distance: 70-80m

[1997] Here is an easy-to-handle wooden hook. With a little weight onthe leading arm, 80m are easily obtained. I love to throw this boomerang, because it does not stress the thrower's arm like the heavy paxolin or GFEC models. When you intend to throw heavy boomerangs, it is recommended to make a dozen tosses with a light LD boomerang like this before. Otherwise your arm will be ruined in no time.

Distance: 90-100m. 110m+ with additional weighting.

[1997] Use the B AGGRESSiVE airfoil or Michel Dufayard's airfoil, both work. Wingspan is 38cm.

Distance: 90-110m

[1997] This is the GFEC boomerang in the B AGRESSiVE collection. A 'Far' should not miss in your collection if you take LD seriously :-) Now let's be serious. The advantange of this boomerang over the paxolin clubs 'BAg Hook II' and'Beatback' is its small weight and easy-to-throw characteristics, while distances of over 100m are still possible.
You may build the 'Far' in Paxolin 4mm if you xerox the original plan to 117%. With accurate weighting you will get a first class competition boomerang with a range of over 110m in a light breeze. When we first saw the 'Challenger III' we thought it was the best LongDistance Boomerang available. A couple of months later we got to know the 'FullPower'. We believed that it had a better flight performance than the 'Challenger III'. So this began to be our favourite LD boom. Much later, Tibor had the idea of building his 'Far' in Paxolin 4mm. He therefore xeroxed his original'Far'-plan to 117%. On the field we saw a boomerang with an excellent flightbehaviour. Since then, we believe that the 'Far' is the best boomerang for throwing accurately beyond 100m.

[2000] Times do change...LOL

Distance: 90-100m. 120m with additional weighting

[1996] On the downloaded plan, you will get additional information about how to carve the airfoil. The design is dated Oct 95. I named the original shape BAg Hook, but because the shape had slightly changed after a few iterations, I gave it a new name: Beatback. Tibor named the hook he designed just after I had my first version BAg Hook II. The Beatback is a large, Challenger size LD boom that might be difficult to handle for beginners. With aggressive airfoil carving (and lead weight on the leading wing) you can X-tend the range to over 120m.

Distance: 100-120m

[1998] This design (July 98) is a combination of the MegaQuirl and the Straight Shooter. I built it in 3.2 mm GFEC with rather conventional LD-airfoiling (for details download the plan). The boom needs negative angle of attack and positive dihedral on the dingle wing, otherwise it will just fly way out on a large circle and won't rise. The distance is not extraordinary, but you can experiment with the new generation airfoil of the Buzz Whip. I filled a 14 mm hole on the leading arm with lead, so the boom has a weight of 75 to 80 g. It must be thrown with 60 ° layover and upward because it tends to dive on its way out. Use full rotation for maximum stability and full power to prevent crashing on the way back.

We suggest trying 2.5 mm GFEC as well (which we didn't try yet). Performance might be improved due to a reduction of drag. A problem might be the insufficient stiffness and tendency to getting warped if you use thin GFEC, especially if the quality is inferior.

Distance: 110-160m

[1998] This shape is only slightly different from the Offspring. I swept the trailing arm more in forward direction, which reduces the efficiency of the wing, concomitant with a reduction of lift. The elbow and leading wing are identical to the Offspring in terms of shape. However, there is a more aggressive airfoil. The onset of the carving is so smooth that I could not draw helping lines. The wings are carved nearly symmetrical and the elbow is built for minimum drag. There was not much tuning necessary to obtain good flight behaviour, maybe a slight negative angle of attack on the trailing wing. Distance is 110 to 120 m, with negative angle of attack on the leading wing 130 m or more can be attained. Throw is 60° tilt angle and slightly upward. Especially if you have negative aoa on the leading wing you have to use maximum throwing power and rotation for stability.

We suggest trying 2.5 mm GFEC as well (which we didn't try yet). Performance might be improved due to a reduction of drag. A problem might be the insufficient stiffness and tendency to getting warped if you use thin GFEC, especially if the quality is inferior.

[2001] The Backdraft has been my favourite competition rang for 3 years. I attained a maximum distance of 149 m (Payerne 1999), in practice maybe 20 m more.

If you have a plan of a LongDistanceBoom of your conception and youwant it to get public, send it to us, either e- or snail-mail.