Paper planes have soared way beyond the classroom. Now every bored schoolboy’s elicit past-time has become a worldwide sport with thousands of fans battling to carry off the championships.
”The secret of a good plane is patience, symmetry and a good eye to feel where you need to fold,” said Nicolas Deschamps, an information technology student as he bent studiously over his paper.
Armed with only one sheet of A4 size paper, he and about 75 others were busy trying to construct a craft which would fly the furthest, the longest or have the most acrobatic flight for the Marseille leg of the world paper plane championships.
After an hour-long warm-up during which paper planes whizzed around the room of a local secondary school, the hopefuls took their places for the three categories.
The winners will next month travel to the French national championships in Monaco to battle against winners from eight other French cities, hoping to secure a place in the world finals in Salzburg in Austria in mid-May.
Winners from 48 countries will take part in the Salzburg finals.
”This competition is just for students, but there are a lot of paper plane fanatics around the world,” said Geoffrey Chatelard, French representative of the Red Bull Paperwings championships.
According to the rules of the competition in all three categories: ”All contests need to be held indoor without any wind” and all planes must be built on site from one piece of officially supplied paper.
”The sheet must be modified by folding only! No ripping, gluing, cutting, stapling or ballasting is allowed,” the organisers say on their website www.redbullpaperwings.com/
And that old trick of trying to give your plane extra lift by jumping on take-off is definitely out.
”The participants need to have both feet firm on the ground during the attempt, before the attempt only one step is allowed. Passing over the starting line leads to disqualification,” the rules add.
The proliferation of internet sites devoted to paper plane enthusiasts is proof of the popularity of this more esoteric of sports.
One association, Paperaircraft, set up in 1989 following a competition held in the Department of Civil Engineering at Imperial College London, says its aim is ”working for the advancement of paper aircraft technology”.
And it wonders at the origins of the paper plane, wondering when and who first made one, suggesting it could well have been the Chinese as ”they were the first to use paper and were major kite builders and flyers many hundreds of years ago.”
And it warns as, many a child, overgrown or otherwise, has already discovered, that making a paper plane fly isn’t easy.
”Unfortunately the idea that paper aircraft are simple to build is often proven wrong, especially when you’re trying to achieve a world record,” it says on its site (www.paperaircraft.com).
This self-evident truth was proved time and again in Marseilles as plane after plane nosedived to the ground after just a paltry few feet. One or two did manage an amazing 26m.
But that is far from the world record held by US paperplane builder extraordinaire Tony Fletch who has remained unbeaten since he flew his model 58,82m in 1985 — further than the first flight by the Wright Brothers.
Another American Ken Blackburn holds the record for the longest time aloft by a paper plane of 27,6 seconds.
On his website (www.paperplane.org) which has got some 400 000 hits in less than a year he provides helpful tips and examples of different models of paper planes.
And he offers: ”Let me know if you would prefer an autographed picture or a paper airplane [one per person].” – AFP