World champions in paper plane flying crowned

May 06, 2012 |

VIENNA

Tags:

world paper plane competition

Paper plane flyers from Lebanon, Czech Republic, Poland, Turkey and the United States were crowned world champions in Salzburg, Austria after defeating rivals from over 80 countries over the weekend.

Czech "pilot" Tomas Beck won the longest distance category at the Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals on Friday and Saturday with a 50.37-metre (165.25-foot) throw, while Elie Chemaly from Lebanon achieved the longest flight time with 10.68 seconds, organisers of the tournament said in a statement.

This was however far from the current world records of 63.19 metres for distance and 27.9 seconds for airborne time.

For the aerobatics category, in which the construction, art and design as well as flight performance of the paper plane are taken into account, two pilots received the top marks of 50 points.

US pilot Ryan Naccarato and Tomasz Chodryra from Poland were awarded maximum points in the category by a jury led by Austrian Olympic ski jumping star Thomas Morgenstern.

Turkey meanwhile took home the team title.

In all, 249 paper plane enthusiasts from 83 countries took part in the two-day event, selected from among 35,000 participants in some 600 qualification rounds worldwide.

Regulations required that the planes be made out of a single A4 sheet of paper using no tools -- such as scissors or glue -- except in the aerobatics category.

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