Building a paper airplane and thrusting it into the air is probably something everyone has done before. But for three South African aspiring pilots, their featherweight gliders have landed them a position to compete in the first international Red Bull Paper Wings competition in Salzburg, Austria in May this year.
South Africa will join 48 countries in the first-ever paper-plane competition, in which aviators will compete against one another in the longest-distance, most air-time and best-acrobatics categories.
Locally, two months of intense competition amongst students from various tertiary institutions culminated in a national final at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg on Thursday.
Provincial winners displayed some of their finest folding skills to date and after three hours of furious folding and flying, Rhett Quinn of Rhodes University was announced winner in the “longest-distance” category when his airplane soared an impressive 34,1m.
Darren Christian of Cape Technikon managed to keep his airplane in the air for 7,38 seconds in the “longest-airtime category”, while Nomfundo Ngcobo of the University of KwaZulu-Natal scored the best acrobatic techniques at the event, scoring 23 out of a possible 25.
Quinn told the Mail & Guardian Online that initially the free drinks motivated him to enter the competition, but he never expected to win anything. “I’m stoked. I just came up with a design today [Thursday]. I never expected to win,” he said.
The world record for the longest distance currently stands at 58,82m, which Quinn is determined to break.
“I don’t really know how I’m going to do it, since the world record is just so unattainable — 58,82m is further than the Wright brothers flew on their first attempt,” he said.
Christian told M&G Online: “It’s unbelievable — it’s even more ridiculous that I’ve won [the largest distance category].”
“I practised for 7 hours straight yesterday and I haven’t even begun to understand what has happened [to me]. I haven’t been to Austria … it’s amazing,” he said excitedly.
Ngcobo also hasn’t been overseas and said: “I’m so excited. I don’t believe it. I’ve been to Jo’burg and Pretoria, but I’ve never been overseas.”
She said the acrobatic category is much more subjective than the others, but feels that no matter how easy it looks “it’s a tough challenge”.
“The competition is marvelous and fun and it’s something unusual. You might say, ‘I can do this’, but really it’s tough,” said Ngcobo.