For those of you that think paper planes are just a geeky form of school room based airmail, think again. The guys at Red Bull have a surprise for you.
In what must be the easiest piece of advertising ever, the energy drink that ‘gives you wings’ has challenged some of the most dedicated aircraft makers in the world to show what they can do with their own set of paper flappers.
Now in its fourth installment, Redbull Paper Wings is triannual competition that pits the globe’s greatest paper plane chuckers against each other in a series of competitions played out using official Paper Plane Association rules (yes, that’s a real organisation).
The competition has been held every three years since 2006 and, this year, competitors from 80 different countries took part in 535 national competitions to wittle down the world’s finest folio flyers.
2015’s Paper Wings final took place in Red Bull’s Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria, which is home to Red Bull’s collection of historical aircraft. Events included the longest airtime, longest distance and even aerobatics where finalists competed to throw their planes in the most stylish way possible.
Armenian, Karen Hambardzumyan, took first place in the airtime comp with a time of 14.36 and Veselin Ivanov of Bulgaria clocked up a staggering 53.22 meter flight in the distance category. Meanwhile aerobatics honours went to Avedis Tchamitchian from Lebanon for this frankly bonkers looking performance:
To be a plane world champion though you’ve got to put in the practice. If you get folding now you might be in with a shot a couple of years for the next Paper Wings cos it’s honestly not as easy as it looks:
You May Also Enjoy
These Guys Have Made a Working Jetpack… You Could Be Flying It to Work By Next Year