If you liked paper airplanes as a kid and you're curious about the current state of the art for hand thrown aircraft, check out "discus launch" gliders (DLGs). These are radio-controlled models with a 1 or 1.5 meter wing span that are designed to be strong enough to be hand launched to almost 200ft but light and aerodynamic enough that they can be held aloft for a very long time by thermals.

There are some interesting design choices that have to be made between optimizing for maximum launch height and maximum glide performance.

Here's a video showing a recent model available in kit form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MD0VXi_DBMM