Happiness is in the air

On 6 May 2006 an armada of folded paper aircrafts invaded the airspace of Hangar-7. Those who were pre-selected from more than 9500 participants in the worldwide qualiflying events travelled to Salzburg in order to take off and go for gold at the Red Bull Paper Wings world finals. To gain more insight into the event check out the photo gallery.

Lacking tuning material, e.g. glue, scissors or paper-clips, pilots entered the airspace of Hangar-7 to outdo each other in reaching the largest distance and longest airtime. Many unconventional as well as simply-folded aircrafts followed their course through the endless realms of this transparent, glass-made architectural masterpiece. In the pre-selections, the AEROBATICS pilots (who showed the utmost in creativity and style) had been competing for the best five launches. Finally, the lights went up to mark the airspace of Hangar-7. It was definitely time for the finals with the winners of each category being awarded with a flight in one of the venerable airplanes of the Flying Bulls fleet on Sunday. "Fasten your sealbelt!"

In the LONGEST AIRTIME category it was Brazilian Diniz Nogueira Nunes who did best. With an airtime of 11,5 seconds in the finals, maths student Nogueira Nunes relegated his competitors from El Salvador and Switzerland to second and third place.

Jovica Kozlica dominated the LARGEST DISTANCE category as he looked to logic and trusted quality in the construction of his paper aircraft. While with a flying distance of 39,43 metres Croatian Kozlica couldn’t break the world record (58,82 metres), he managed to win out over his competitor Rodrigo Cota (MEX) by one span width.

The Flying Bulls’ most impressive Douglas DC-6B inspired the AEROBATICS pilots to showcase a series of very creative aerobatic performances. All eyes were on those loopings and flamboyant outfits (that did not in any way influence the final results). After all, it was the extraordinary paper aircraft of Sagi Volniansky which took off most impressively and reached the highest score of the jury, including Ken Blackburn and cliff diver Orlando Duque.