Paper Planes
Red Bull Paper Wings champions help this year's entrants take flight
Fine-tune your designs for this year's Red Bull Paper Wings competition with a little help from the current champions.
If you're perfecting your paper planes for this year's Red Bull Paper Wings competition, there’s no shortage of expert advice to seek out online. However, two people in particular know better than most what it takes to win your regional competition and make it to the top of the podium at the world final in Salzburg, Austria: the reigning champions.
Veselin Ivanov of Bulgaria holds the title in the Red Bull Paper Wings Longest Distance category, while Avedis Tchamitchian from Lebanon won the Aerobatics category in 2015 with a perfect score of 50 points. In the spirit of good competition, both champions share some useful advice to new pilots, while plotting their moves for 2019.
Step #1: Choose your competition category
"I like fast planes and fast cars. When I saw the video for the world record at longest distance, I wanted to participate in that category," said Ivanov. "Yes, I also tried the Longest Airtime category, but I wasn't feeling that this was my category, so in longest distance I felt that I could win and one day maybe beat the world record."
"The perfect airplane exists in the longest time and distance category, but regarding the Aerobatics category, well it's an open topic," said Tchamitchian. "There's a lot of room for optimisation and for the creations of new ideas."
In 2015, Karen Hambardzumyan of Armenia won the third Red Bull Paper Wings Longest Airtime category, with a flight lasting 14.36 seconds, followed by Ma Leng (Hong Kong) with 13.76 seconds, and Yohei Hayashi (Japan) with 12.18 seconds.
Ivanov, Tchamitchian and Hambardzumyan with the 2015 trophies
© Sebastian Marko/Red Bull Content Pool
Steps #2 & #3: Follow the rules and have a backup plan
Your choice of longest distance, longest airtime, or the aerobatics category will dictate the type of plane you make and remake time-and-time again on your quest for perfection. Even once you have a plan for your plane, you'll need to modify it to account for the official Red Bull Paper Wings paper that's provided to all contestants at the World Final.
"If you make some small mistake during folding the plane, you start again. If you want to win you need to be perfect," said Ivanov. "I was looking for solutions how to prevent unfolding the paper plane during flight, because the Red Bull paper was thicker than regular. When using clips on the plane, the paper remains folded, and after removing them (for the competition) it's harder to unfold during flight."
In 2012, Tchamitchian tied for first place in the Lebanese finals, setting up an unexpected tie-breaker round. With all of his ideas (and materials) invested in the first round, Tchamitchian couldn't improvise something as spectacular in the limited time provided. He proudly accepted second place and set to work on his successful 2015 comeback.
"Back in 2012, I learned to have a Plan B for every idea that I was implementing, especially with the ones that I wasn't sure would be adequate with the rules of Red Bull Paper Wings. When it comes to designing a flying vehicle and competing in this sector, well, my ideology pretty much fits with Murphy's Law [whatever can go wrong, will go wrong]. Having this philosophy enabled me to use a Plan B that was also reliable, but had a higher risk."
In 2015, Tchamitchian made it all the way to Salzburg, only to find out one key part of his act was against the rules. He planned a surprise burst that would send loads of mini airplanes fluttering to the ground, but was told that fire was not allowed inside Hangar-7, so he had to improvise and literally did a hat-trick, using his captain's hat to keep his creation afloat.
Veselin suggests that new competitors start practising from the very beginning with thicker paper. "Keep in mind that the paper is thicker," he said. "If you want your plane to fly a very long distance, you need to make the shape more aerodynamic to reduce the air resistance."
Veselin's victory, a staggering 53.22m, is even more impressive because he threw the plane himself. John M Collins, author of The World Record Paper Airplane and International Award Winning Designs, designed and folded the Guinness World Records champion plane, but he turned to Joe Ayoob, a professional American Football player, to launch the record 69.14m throw. Veselin reveals one of his practice throws in Salzburg came close to the all-time record. "During the practice in the hanger, before the competition ,I was able to throw 62m," he recalled. "The plane literally went a few metres below the ceiling of the hanger."
Remember to practice with thicker paper
© Suguru Saito/Red Bull Content Pool
Step #4: Win or lose; plot your comeback
In 2015, Ivanov's winning throw was a full 2m longer than his nearest competitor, a 51.22m toss from Croatia, and a 50.05m throw from Japan. He plans on returning to Salzburg in 2019, but first he must win his regional competition. All he'll reveal about his plans for this year are, "same category, same style plane, but maybe with some improvements."
Tchamitchian, meanwhile, has yet to reveal if he'll return this year. "It would be an honour to compete and to defend my title in 2019," he said. "But first, I'm questioning if it's possible to win twice, since it never happened in the history of Red Bull Paper Wings. It won't be easy to bring something new in front of the crowd, since it requires a lot of imagination, intuition and problem-solving skills in order to make it realisable."
All of this, Tchamitchian has in rich supply, so stay tuned to see if he has more surprises up his sleeve, and in his hat, for 2019.
Do you have what it takes to take flight in this year's Red Bull Paper Wings competition? Download the free app, and visit the official website to find a longest airtime and longest distance qualifier near you, or for more information on entering the Acrobatics category on Instagram.
