photo by Alex Jones
Red Bull Pittsburgh is hosting paper airplane competition on Sunday, March 22. Point Park students have the opportunity to compete at the qualifying round for a chance to win a free trip to the finals in Salzburg, Austria.
In elementary school, building paper airplanes was just a hobby to see who could fly the furthest in class, but this playground pasttime transforms into something much bigger during a competition created by Red Bull.
Red Bull Pittsburgh is hosting a qualifying event for the Red Bull Paper Wings paper airplane competition, which finds the best paper airplanes in the world. Students from Point Park, Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh will be competing for a free trip and a place in the final competition that will take place in Salzburg, Austria.
The event will take place Sunday, March 22 from 12 to 2 p.m. at the Atlantic Aviation KPIT in Coraopolis, Pa. A shuttle for students will be leaving the First Avenue Parking Lot at 10:30 a.m.
Junior sports, arts and entertainment management (SAEM) major Molly Burns is thrilled to participate in her second Red Bull competition. Last year she competed in the Red Bull: Can You Make It Campaign with two other team members.
“We are expecting the environment to be fun filled and action packed,” Burns said. “We’ve seen videos on YouTube from other universities and cannot wait to see what type of event Point Park has planned.”
Frequent Red Bull drinker Tyler Bogden, a freshman SAEM major, has helped out at Red Bull sponsored events on campus and watched their televised events, but this will be his first time participating in an event. Ali Chain and Tyler Curry will also be first-time event participants and are excited to visit the multi-million dollar airplane hangar where they will be spending the day.
Students are able to enter three different categories: longest distance, longest airtime and aerobatics. There is no limit on how many they can enter.
The distance and airtime categories have strict rules to follow for the building and throwing of airplanes. Each plane must be made on site with only standard letter-sized paper and can only be modified by folding. The throw must be done by one contestant, unaided, and the launcher may only move past the throwing line once the plane has landed.
In contrast, the aerobatics contest has a much looser code of conduct. Contestants may build their planes before or during the event with no restrictions on paper size, weight or quality. Launchers have one minute to show off their aerobatic skills to the judging panel, who will judge the construction, creativity and flight performance of each plane.
No plane may be remote controlled or use stored energy.
“I’m most excited to see the crazy airplanes that people make because I know traditional airplanes you can make out of a napkin don’t go very far, but I have a feeling there’s going to be some serious airplane building going on,” Bogden said.
Senior dance major Curry said that he is ready for anything because Point Park has really encouraged him to come out of his shell and participate in other events.
“Alex [Jones, PPU Red Bull Representative] mentioned this, and I was like, ‘I don’t know, I’ve never flown a paper airplane before, but why not,’” he said.
Any students interested in participating in the event can check in and register by searching “Red Bull Paper Wings Pittsburgh Qualifier” on Facebook or visiting http://www.redbullpaperwings.com/Countries/United_States/Qualiflying/Red_Bull_Paper_Wings_Qualiflyer_Pittsburgh.html.
