The world’s largest paper plane championship is back. In Red Bull Paper Wings, the idea is simple and ingenious: No fuel. No engines.
Participants must simply make a plain sheet of A4 paper fly as far, as long or as artistically through the air as possible. Coming from more than 60 countries, national winners in three categories will be invited to the Red Bull Paper Wings World Final in Austria, where the 2022 world champions will be crowned.
Categories
The event recognizes three categories: Distance and Airtime are judged at Qualiflying events, and the two pilots with the longest distance and longest airtime at each National Final advance to the World Final. The third category is Aerobatics, which for the first time will determine its national finalists online on the social media platform TikTok
Distance: To succeed, pilots must be able to throw their planes farther than anyone else. At the last World Final in 2019, the USA’s Jake Hardy topped the field with 56.61m.
Airtime: Pilots must fold their planes for just the right aerodynamics to achieve the longest flight time. In 2019, Australia’s Cameron Clark snatched victory with 13.33 seconds!
Aerobatics: This category is all about creative performances – in the 2019 finale, Ukraine’s Kateryna Ahafonova scored the only perfect 10 with her creative paper plane performance. Pilots don’t need to show up at a Qualiflyer. Instead, they’ll get creative with their paper planes at home and share their mastery on TikTok. Details, including how to enter, are available at the event website, www.redbullpaperwings.com.
Qualiflying events in South Africa can be found here.
Fast Lane to the World Final
The first pilot is already on board for the World Final, thanks to a new Fast Lane opportunity unique to the Aerobatics category. All Aerobatics entries worldwide that were submitted by December 31, 2021, were reviewed by the global judges, with one selected for the Fast Lane to the lineup in Austria. A creative video from Kin Lok U of Hong Kong – with paper planes flying in unexpected directions and a unique editing style – was the judge’s choice, and now he will be polishing his performance as he looks forward to taking on the complete field of national Aerobatics winners to be selected in the weeks ahead.
World Final location
The Red Bull Paper Wings World Final will be held at the iconic Hangar-7 in Salzburg, Austria. An architectural landmark, the venue was conceived as a place where aviation comes together with art and the culinary arts, hosting high-profile exhibitions, events and programming.
The time to set a winning flight path is now with information available at www.redbullpaperwings.com.