Paper Planes a-Flyin’
Winners Fight for a Flight to Austria
It’s a bird! It’s a plane! Well, really, paper planes.
White paper planes filled the lobby of Concordia’s EV Building Feb. 28 as Red Bull Paper Wings hosted one its qualifying rounds leading up to the national round in Toronto.
“I was just walking through, I saw the Red Bull logo and my friends and I decided to take a little study break and try it out,” said Nick Fournier, who won in the aerobatics category with 22 points.
Joining Fournier will be Zsean Qurishi who won the longest distance competition at 56 feet, along with Korhan Akcura who held the record for longest airtime with nine seconds.
Red Bull Paper Wings is a competition that challenges students to make and fly paper airplanes in three different categories for the longest distance, airtime, and aerobatics—which is the number of flips a plane can do before it hits the ground. The three finalists will move to the national round in Toronto which takes place in April. From there the top three competitors move on to the World finals in Austria in May.
“It will be nice to go to Toronto and represent Quebec and hopefully win the Canadian round and go to Austria,” said Akcura.
Red Bull added Concordia to its national tour because of the event’s popularity with students. “Concordia has great programs, and lots of students interested in performing in a program like this,” said Red Bull spokesperson Sonia Klinger.
The event was done in collaboration with Concordia’s Engineering and Computer Science Association (ECA) as part of their engineering week, which is full of events promoting the program.
According to VP Internal Carolyne Gagnon, the competition was a success, boasting an attendance of more than 50 people. She got the idea when Derek Brenzel, Red Bull student brand manager for Concordia, approached her about hosting an event at the school. With engineering week in full swing, she decided to choose the Paper Wings competition.
At the same time the ECA was helping Red Bull promote it’s seventh annual Crashed Ice competition to Concordia students, hosted in Quebec City March 17. It’s a downhill skating competition, where contenders race through an urban ice course, including steep turns and high vertical drops.
According to Gagnon, the paper wings competition is only the beginning of what’s to come for the University. “This was a trial run and we’re discussing future events that Red Bull will host with us,” she said.
Concordia is no stranger to Red Bull’s events. On March 29, 2011 they brought Tum Tum Pa, an event where teams of four people break into a freestyle drumming competition using only school supplies, on the seventh floor of the Hall Building.
