The world of paper aeroplanes is about to be turned upside-down, thanks to an invention from Power Up. The device takes any conventional paper plane and lets you add a small electric motor to the back.

In its most basic form, the Power Up 2.0, the motor is all you get. Go for the Power Up 3.0 however and you can connect to your paper aircraft via Bluetooth 4.0 and even control it using your iPhone. Power Up promises flight times of up to 10 minutes with the 3.0 version of the device.

There is also a boat-specific version of the kit, designed for those who like to build paper boats. The whole concept is brilliant and should have unruly kids in classrooms the world over doing backflips. 

All you need is some A4 paper, a decent paper aeroplane design and the Power Up should attach to it and give your plane a power boost. The iPhone device is expected to be launched in August this year, the basic Power Up 2.0 in July.

If you can't wait that long, the current generation of Power Up plane kits are on sale at Amazon. Judging from Power Up's instruction page, building isn't particularly complex either.