Remember the days when the most exciting activity that occurred during a lovely day out was, basically, a DIY paper airplane? Imagine the same activity, but on a bigger scale! Red Bull Paper Wings is the world’s largest paper plane competition.
The idea is plain and simple, but ingenious at the same time. Students are challenged to make the classic paper airplane, fly as far, as long, as creatively and as artistically through the air as possible! Two finalists, Mohamed Abdelkarim and Mustafa Hasan, are headed to Hangar-7 for Red Bull Paper Wings World Final.
The world’s largest paper plane competition has just concluded its latest two final rounds. In front of hundreds of spectators and rival participants, Mohamed Abdelkarim and Mustafa Hasan successfully clinched the win, and are soon headed to the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final in Austria.
We were ecstatic to learn that some of the world’s best student pilots actually hailed from Kuwait, and they took on their rivals for the chance of winning a spot in the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final. Set to take place this month in the beautiful country of Austria, this year’s final is set to feature tens of thousands of self-trained student pilots who will be displaying their outstanding creative skills. Between 64 qualifiers across the globe, the test to enter the world’s leading paper plane contest will be a day to look forward to.
The Kuwait qualifiers took place last month at 360 Mall, impressing participants and spectators alike. To take part in the competition, students had to make a single piece of paper fly as far and as long, plus as artistically as possible through the air. Seems simple enough, right?
But crafting the perfect paper airplane—one that looks creatively inspired, plus engineered to fly for as long as possible, is no easy feat! This is why we were so proud to learn that the Kuwait winners competing in the categories of longest distance and longest airtime have been invited to the World Final in Austria.
The judging criteria certainly differs based on the category. The winner of the longest distance category is, you guessed it, the plane that flies the longest distance between lift-off and the landing point. Although, the winner of the longest airtime is the plane that manages to stay in the air the longest, counted to the tenth of the second.
Mustafa Hasan flew his amazing paper plane for 9.22 seconds, while Mohamed Abdelkarim achieved an astonishing distance of 19.3 meters. The Kuwait finalists will descend onto Salzburg Hangar-7 for the World Final. Each pilot will be armed with a single A4 sheet of paper, ready to impress fans and judges across the three distinct categories. What they come up with next is surely going to be amazing.
The global winners for distance, airtime, aerobatics and best ranked player of the augmented reality game will get the prize of a Red Bull Air Race Weekend Experience. The prize includes flight tickets, accommodation, a full pass to watch the training and race over the weekend, access to sky lounge (depending on the race), tour and meet and greet with one of the pilots of Red Bull Air Race.
For more information on the World of Red Bull, visit redbull.com.
