Last term, teacher Tom Peyton bought a pile of paulownia offcuts and used them to make CO2 Dragsters with his students as part of their Hard Materials classes. Check out the finished racers in the video below.

Nigel Armitage recently constructed a paulownia hull for a one-metre radio controlled yacht. He used 3mm strip planking, followed with a layer of fibreglass. His previous boat was built using balsa (shown in the background). He’s hoping that using paulownia will reduce the finished weight of the yacht.

Hamish and Sam of The Angry Pumpkin Snowboards use paulownia as a key component in the custom snowboards they build. They combine paulownia with other timbers, such as bamboo, with the aim of building high quality boards which are extremely durable.