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Fly like paper, rise like planes
Making paper aeroplanes? Nothing to it, simply fold a piece of paper, right? Wrong. Constructing a winning model takes skill.
- By Rania Moussly
- Published: 23:05 February 28, 2009
- Mohammad Ameen and Ayham Zadan try to sail their paper planes as far as they can in hopes of winning the Red Bull Flying Paper competition, held at the American University of Sharjah, last week.
- Image Credit: Atiq-Ur-Rehman/Gulf News
The American University of Sharjah (AUS) was the first of six universities in the UAE to hold the national qualifiers for the Red Bull paper aeroplane contest last week on campus. The contest, which began in 2006, is now in its second year. Eighty-five countries are battling it out for the May 2009 World Finals to be held at Hanger 7 in Salzburg, Austria, hometown of classical composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Contestants can take part in one or all of the three divisions. The event, emceed by Ali Al Sayed, kicked off with students competing for victory for the longest distance. Made from a single piece of paper provided to contestants after registration, the plane which flew the furthest distance between lift-off and landing points within the official air space will qualify for the national competition.
Participants took their places behind the launch line and took two turns each at propelling their models as far as their arms could reach. "The trick is to make the nose heavy and the wings wide," said Nidal Morra, 21, a contender.
The official world record for the longest distance was achieved in the US in 2003 by Stephen Krieger with a whopping 63.19 metres (207 feet four inches), a record that remains unbroken.
The second division was longest airtime. The technique for this category is to make a model with a light nose and wider wings to maximise gliding time.
Yousuf Othman, 21, came to the event and made a last-minute decision to participate. "It's exciting to create the plane and watch it fly. I don't usually participate, I came here randomly and the fact I came third counts for something... I'm proud of myself," he said.
The last, but by no means least, segment was acrobatics. This was all about the art of making a paper plane fly through the air with some flair.
A panel of three judges rated contenders on a scale of one to ten. They were assessed on construction (technical); creativity (art and design) and of course, flight performance.
Ready-made planes were brought along to this part of the event because there were no restrictions with regard to construction technique, paper quality and size or support material used for the planes.
Firas Ebrahim, 19, was nervous before his acrobatics debut. "My friends and I used to make paper planes and throw them around in class at school. I just entered this contest for fun, by chance," he said.
Mohammad Mourtada, 19, reading a BA in Computer Science, came along only to watch the show and was talked into participating by his friend.
Mourtada championed the longest distance division with a length of 32.7 metres. "I feel great. I came to watch and at the last minute my friend studying electrical engineering, who made the plane, asked me to throw it for him because I'm good at it," said Mourtada.
He gave Notes an inside tip. "You must launch the plane at a 45 degree angle."
Adib Kazzi, 21, in his third year of mechanical engineering, won the longest airtime division with 8.19 seconds. Kazzi used a model design taught to him as a child by his father. He said it is important to throw the plane at an angle and decided to do that instinctively.
"It's actually shocking that I won. I've never won anything in my life. I didn't come to win. I came late and found out there were places still available, so I entered," Kazzi said.
"I like designing things from paper and try to learn new ways. It requires no tools and it is fun to go to a park with friends and test out a creation that was so easy to build," said Kazzi about what is probably the cheapest hobby known to man.
Basem Iskandar, 22, in his second year of accounting, initially entered the first two divisions. As the acrobatics division got underway, he entered the third division too. And won scoring 22 points.
His winning move was making a flap on each wing. "I learnt how to make paper planes one summer in Saudi when I was bored. I made many prototypes and practised throwing them around and decided on this model through that process of trial and error. I made this [his paper plane model] today in my economics class.
"It's all about aerodynamics," Iskandar added, but those who paid attention in physics class would already know that.
The winners were awarded tickets to the Red Bull Air Race Championship at the Abu Dhabi Corniche on April 17 and 18.
Victors- Mohammad Mourtada for the longest distance (32.7 metres) - Adib Kazzi for the longest airtime (8.19 seconds) n Basem Iskandar for acrobatics (22 points)
The judges
- On Creativity: Tim Derry from Saatchi&Saatchi n On Construction: Pauline Forte from XPress newspaper n On Flight Performance: Giorgio Ungania from SAE Institute Dubai World champions n Stephen Krieger for longest distance (63.19 metres) US 2003
- Ken Blackburn for longest airtime (27.6 seconds) US 1998 Universities due to launch n Al Ghurair University in Dubai March 2
- Abu Dhabi Men's College March 4 n New York Institute March 10 n Dubai Men's College March 16
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