Some people develop remarkable skills. Only a few manage to surpass the limits and amaze the world with their dexterity. Finally, a handful of privileged ones stand out, such as Aliaksei Zholner, who has spent years building paper engines. Yes, you read that right: paper engines. The most striking thing is that these are not mockups or static models, but they have moving parts and work similarly to a real engine.
On YouTube, several videos show miniature engines built piece by piece using different types of metals, lathes, and other precision tools. Among them, a video with a V8 design (uses fuel) and another V12 (air-based) stand out, which beyond their technical classification are excellent engineering works. Now, what happens when the plan is to make an engine out of another material? Maybe its creator isn't thinking of giving it a practical function, but such an engine definitely serves to refine skills and detect weak points in a format. Alternatively, it might just be a simple hobby, though I don't see anything simple in this video...
The builder's name is Aliaksei Zholner, whom some media have presented as an engineer, but unfortunately we are not certain of that. Anyway, his paper engines are perfect proof that he knows a thing or two about mechanics and miniaturization. His first video was published more than five years ago, and over time he increased the complexity of his designs, until reaching a V8 model presented a couple of days ago. He even took the trouble to create an accelerator for that engine, and as we can appreciate, the vast majority of components are made of paper (the shafts seem to be toothpicks or something similar).
Logically, Zholner uses compressed air as “fuel” for his engines, but that doesn't change the fact that his work is fantastic. To have a more solid idea of the size of his paper V8 engine, in one of the videos he keeps it inside the yellow capsules that come in Kinder chocolate eggs. For now, the V8 engine has no plans, but it's possible to find more information in the description of each video.
